Ukraine, which is facing a Russian invasion, has shared a cartoon of Russian President Vladimir Putin with Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler. The tweet left little to doubt about what it meant: that Putin was following in the footsteps of Hitler.
— Ukraine / Україна (@Ukraine) February 24, 2022
The tweet comes at a time when Russia has launched military operations against Ukraine, a former Soviet republic.
On Thursday, the Russian Defence Ministry said it destroyed air bases and air defence systems in Ukraine with precision weapons.
Ukraine, on the other hand, claimed it had downed five Russian planes and a helicopter near a rebel-held enclave in the eastern part of the country. The beginning of the armed conflict has led to fears that a full-blown war could erupt in Europe over heightened tensions between Russia and the West.
Many Western leaders have criticised the renewed Russian invasion of Ukraine. Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, has described Mr Putin as “very evil” and compared him to Hitler. She said the Russian action against its neighbour is a “total assault on democracy.”
Addressing a Capitol press conference, Ms Pelosi said, “This is a very evil move on the part of Vladimir Putin.”
“You cannot ignore what Putin is doing. And nobody is, of course, ignoring it — but you cannot take it any lighter than what it is: a total assault on democracy,” she said.
Ms Pelosi also hit out at Mr Putin over alleged Russian hacking of emails from the Democratic National Committee and prominent Democrats. “This is the same tyrant who attacked our democracy in 2016,” she said. Moscow has denied the accusations.
