Invoking Stalingrad, Putin calls for victory
MOSCOW • Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday marked the 80th anniversary of the Second World War Soviet victory over Nazi German forces in the battle of Stalingrad, and invoked the long and gruelling fight as justification for the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin laid a wreath at the eternal flame of the memorial complex to the fallen Red Army soldiers in Volgograd, the current name of the city, which stretches along the western bank of the Volga River.
The memorial is dominated by an 85-metre sculpture of a sword-wielding woman, Europe’s tallest statue.
Afterwards, he said: “Now, regrettably, we see that the ideology of Nazism, in its modern guise, in its modern manifestation, once again poses direct threats to the security of our country. Again and again we are forced to repulse the aggression of the collective West.”
Putin and other Russian officials frequently characterize Ukraine as a hotbed of neo-nazi beliefs, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is of Jewish descent.
Referring to Germany’s recent decision to supply advanced Leopard battle tanks, Putin warned that “a modern war with Russia will be quite different for them.”
“It’s incredible, but it’s a fact: they are threatening us again with German Leopard tanks with crosses painted on their armour,” Putin said.
“And they are again going to fight Russia on the territory of Ukraine with the hands of Hitler’s followers, the Banderites,” he said, referring to Second World War-era Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera who was widely considered to be a Nazi collaborator.
The battle of Stalingrad has deep resonance in Russia.
The five-month fighting is regarded as the bloodiest battle in history, with the death toll for soldiers and civilians reaching as high as two million. Most of the city was reduced to rubble before Nazi forces surrendered on Feb. 2, 1943.
It was a major turning point in the European theatre of the war and the battle remains an immense source of pride in modern Russia, lauded as a demonstration of military might and moral seriousness.
The city was renamed in 1961 as part of the Soviet Union’s rejection of dictator Josef Stalin’s personality cult. Calls for the restoration of its old name haven’t received the Kremlin’s blessing.
As Russian forces struggle to gain ground in Ukraine, lawmakers from the dominant United Russia party have been told to liken the Ukraine fight to Stalingrad, the newspaper Kommersant reported.