The war between Russia and Ukraine is being played out, not just in the battlefield but on social media as well. As Russian missile rained from the sky and tanks crossed its border, the official Twitter account of Ukraine posted a caricature which shows Nazi leader Adolf Hitler smiling down on Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The cartoon on Ukraine crisis has been posted without any text, but just with the words “official website” stamped on it. Both Putin and Hitler are looking at each other affectionately, with the Nazi leader's hand on Russian President's cheek.
Many Twitter users called the illustration a political cartoon and a “meme” but the Ukraine handle posted a subsequent tweet in reply to the original post which said, “This is not a ‘meme', but our and your reality right now.”
As tensions mounted on the Ukrainian border in weeks before the war, many protesters inUkraine compared Putin to Hitler. Speaker of United States' House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, had lashed out at Putin for launching the invasion and compared him to Hitler on Wednesday.
Pelosi also compared Putin's recognition of the breakaway regions of Donetsk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine to Hitler's annexation of Sudentenland in 1938 and invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939.
Russian forces invaded Ukraine by land, air and sea on Thursday, confirming the West's worst fears with the biggest attack by one state against another in Europe since World War Two.
Putin, who had earlier asked Ukraine to refrain from joining NATO, said his aim is to demilitarise the neighbouring country.
Explosions were heard near the capital Kyiv. Ukraine said some military command centres were hit.
NATO put more than 100 warplanes on alert and will reinforce troops on its eastern flank, Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, adding that the alliance had no plans to send troops into Ukraine.
The European Union will freeze Russian assets, halt access of its banks to the European financial market and target "Kremlin interests" over its "barbaric attack", senior officials said.
US President Joe Biden pledged "severe" G7 sanctions over what he called Putin's "premeditated war".
