Johnson likens Putin’s invasion of Ukraine to Hitler’s Germany
Prime Minister will evoke the spirit of Churchill with ‘finest hour’ address in Kyiv
BORIS Johnson is to liken Russia’s conflict with Ukraine to Hitler’s invasion of Europe during the Second World War in an address today to MPS in Kyiv.
The Prime Minister will evoke Winston Churchill when he tells members of the Verkhovna Rada that it is their country’s “finest hour”.
Churchill told MPS in 1940, as Britain faced the threat of invasion by Germany, that if they could stand up to Hitler “all of Europe may be free” and said: “Let us therefore brace ourselves to our duty and so bear ourselves that if the British Commonwealth and Empire lasts for a thousand years, men will still say, ‘this was their finest hour’.”
Mr Johnson is to echo this sentiment today as he speaks to Ukrainian MPS, becoming the first world leader to do so since the invasion started three months ago.
He is expected to say that just as Britain considers its “finest hour” to be the strength people showed in the face of the “threat of invasion during the Second World War”, the current conflict “is Ukraine’s finest hour”.
Mr Johnson will speak to MPS via videolink from Downing Street, where he is expected to say: “When my country faced the threat of invasion during the Second World War, our parliament – like yours – continued to meet throughout the conflict, and the British people showed such unity and resolve that we remember our time of greatest peril as our finest hour.
“This is Ukraine’s finest hour, an epic chapter in your national story that will be remembered and recounted for generations to come.
“Your children and grandchildren will say that Ukrainians taught the world that the brute force of an aggressor counts for nothing against the moral force of a people determined to be free.”
He will also announce a £300 million package of military aid and specialised civilian protection vehicles for the war-torn country today, on the same day as the British embassy reopens in Kyiv.
Included in the new wave of support will be electronic warfare equipment, GPS jamming gear and thousands of night-vision goggles and devices for after-dark conflict.
In the coming weeks, heavy lift UAV systems will be provided to give logistical support to isolated forces, and more than a dozen new specialised Toyota Landcruisers will also be shipped out to help protect civilian officials in Eastern Ukraine and evacuate civilians from frontline areas, following a request from the Ukrainian government.
The additional assistance comes as the war reaches its third month, displacing millions of people from their homes and killing thousands of soldiers and civilians.
Israel, which has acted at times as a negotiator and peacekeeper in the conflict, has now been drawn deeper into the fight after Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Adolf Hitler had “Jewish blood”.
In a signal of sharply deteriorating relations with Moscow, the Israeli foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador and demanded an apology.
“Such lies are intended to accuse the Jews themselves of the most horrific crimes in history that were committed against them,” Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett said in a statement.
“The use of the Holocaust of the Jewish people for political purposes must stop immediately.”
Lavrov made the assertion on Italian television on Sunday, when he was asked why Russia said it needed to “de-nazify” Ukraine if the country’s own president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, was Jewish. “Well, I think
that Hitler also had Jewish origins, so it means nothing,” he said, speaking through an interpreter.
Lavrov made the remarks in an interview on Italian TV programme Zona Bianca on Sunday, days after Israel marked Holocaust Remembrance Day, one of the most solemn occasions in the Israeli calendar.
When asked how Russia can claim that it is fighting to “de-nazify” Ukraine when President Zelenskyy is himself Jewish, Lavrov said: “I could be wrong, but Hitler also had Jewish blood.
“Wise Jewish people say that the most ardent anti-semites are usually Jews.”
Dani Dayan, chairman of Yad Vashem, Israel’s memorial to the six million Jews killed in the Holocaust, said the Russian minister’s remarks were “an insult and a severe blow to the victims of the real Nazism”.
Mr Dayan added: “Most of his remarks are absurd, delusional, dangerous and deserving of any condemnation,” he tweeted.
“Lavrov deals with the reversal of the Holocaust: turning the victims into criminals, based on the promotion of a completely unfounded claim that Hitler was of Jewish descent.”
Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid said the remarks were “unforgivable and outrageous”.
Mr Lapid, whose grandfather died in the Holocaust, said that accusing Jews of being anti-semites was “the lowest level of racism”.
He also dismissed Lavrov’s assertion that pro-nazi elements held sway over the Ukrainian government and military.
“The Ukrainians aren’t Nazis. Only the Nazis were Nazis and only they dealt with the systematic destruction of the Jewish people”, Lapid told the Ynet news website.
Israel’s foreign ministry summoned Russia’s ambassador for “clarification” and demanded an apology.
Nazi Germany murdered six million Jews in the Holocaust in the Second World War.
Over recent months, Israel, which has a large Russian population, has tried at times to act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine.
But the Israeli government has faced some criticism for not taking a tough enough line with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
There have for decades been unproven claims that Hitler’s unidentified paternal grandfather was Jewish, fuelled by an assertion by Hitler’s lawyer Hans Frank.
In his memoir, published in 1953, Frank said he had been instructed by Hitler to investigate rumours that he had Jewish ancestry.
Frank said he uncovered evidence that Hitler’s grandfather was indeed Jewish – though the claim, which has gained ground among conspiracy theorists, has been treated with scepticism by historians.
Kyiv condemned Lavrov’s words, saying his “heinous remarks” were offensive to Zelenskyy, to Israel, Ukraine and Jews. “They demonstrate that today’s Russia is full of hatred towards other nations,” Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said.
A German government spokesperson said the idea Hitler had Jewish heritage was “absurd”.
Israel has expressed repeated support for Ukraine following the Russian invasion.
But wary of straining relations with Russia, a powerbroker in neighbouring Syria, it initially avoided direct criticism of Moscow and has not enforced formal sanctions on Russian oligarchs. However, relations have grown more strained, with Lapid accusing Russia of committing war crimes in Ukraine.
But the Ukrainian president has also run into flak in Israel when in an address to the Israeli parliament in March, Zelenskyy compared the Russian offensive with Nazi Germany’s plan to murder Jews.
Yad Vashem, Israel’s official memorial to the victims of the Holocaust, called his comments “irresponsible”.