Zelensky is not Hitler, the proposal for negotiations in Istanbul came from Putin

Zelensky’s comparison to Hitler does not hold water. Zelensky is not a Nazi, nor is he committing genocide, so comparing him to Hitler is unfounded. This is well-known Kremlin propaganda that has been spreading since the beginning of the war and is intended to justify Russia’s military aggression

 

We analyze a Facebook post that says:

Hitler waiting for Stalin for negotiations in front of the Brandenburg Gate, on May 8, 1945?

He announced to all the media outlets that he wants negotiations, he was wrong to go after Russia.

Zelensky is waiting for Putin in Istanbul, on May 15, tomorrow.

Why would anyone beat a dead horse?

The post attempts to equate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky with former Nazi leader of Germany Adolf Hitler, comparing negotiations between Hitler and then-Russian leader Stalin to end World War II with possible negotiations between Zelensky and Putin to end the war in Ukraine.

Such a comparison is unthinkable, because Zelensky cannot be compared to Hitler on any basis. Zelensky did not start any war and did not attack Russia to now be demanding negotiations.

The war in Ukraine was started by Putin. On February 24, 2022, Russian troops launched an attack on Ukraine ordered by President Putin, who announced a “special military operation” in the early hours of the morning, despite warnings from world leaders that the move could lead to the largest war in Europe since 1945.

The attack was preceded by Russian President Putin’s decision on February 21, 2022, to recognize the independence of the so-called Donetsk and Luhansk People’s Republics, which have been under the control of pro-Russian separatists since 2014. This decision allowed Putin to directly send Russian military units into Eastern Ukraine, where sporadic clashes between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists were already underway.

Since the beginning of the war, the Kremlin, in order to justify its military aggression, has been trying to twist the narrative, claiming that it is conducting some kind of special military operation, among other things, to denazify Ukraine. At the same time, Russian propaganda has not stopped comparing Zelensky to Hitler and calling him a Nazi.

Conspiracy theorists and Russian propagandists constantly try to portray the president of Ukraine as a neo-Nazi or Nazi sympathizer, even though Zelensky is Jewish and three of his uncles died in the Holocaust.

Commenting on these accusations, Zelensky once stated that Moscow “follows the same concept as Goebbels and they use the same methodology” in trying to justify the war against Ukraine.

Truthmeter.mk has written on this topic, when Zelensky was manipulatively and unfoundedly compared to Hitler, and a photo of him allegedly holding a jersey with a swastika was also circulating. AFP fact-checkers showed that the photo that was shared was digitally altered and shows that Zelensky was  inserted using photomontage.

A photo was also shared that appeared to have been taken after a wedding, and showed the newlyweds appearing to simulate a Nazi salute with the Ukrainian flag in the background. However, a fact-check showed that the photo of wedding guests simulating a Nazi salute was not taken in Ukraine, but in Russia.

As for the negotiations between Ukraine and Russia to be held in Istanbul, the idea for them was given by Putin, not Zelensky. It was Putin who did not accept the proposal of European heads of state and government and Ukrainian President Zelensky to declare a 30-day ceasefire on May 12. Instead, he proposed to Ukraine that direct negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow continue “without preconditions” on May 15 in Istanbul.

After this, Zelensky proposed meeting directly with Putin in Istanbul, which Putin refused.

“We are waiting for a complete and lasting ceasefire, starting tomorrow, to provide the necessary basis for diplomacy. There is no point in continuing the killing. And I will wait for Putin in Turkey on Thursday. In person. I hope that this time the Russians will not look for excuses,” Zelensky said.

From this it can be said that Putin has no intention of stopping the war, which is also evidenced by the fact that on April 1, he signed a decree on spring mobilization, ordering 160,000 citizens to be called up for military service in the period from April 1 to July 15, which is the largest number of conscripts in Russia since 2011.

The spring call for a year of military service came months after Putin said Russia needed to increase its military to nearly 2.39 million soldiers, including increasing the number of active-duty personnel to 1.5 million, an increase of 180,000 over the next three years.

How Putin rejected the peace agreement for Ukraine initiated by Trump, continuing attacks on civilians, read in the extensive analysis by Truthmeter.mk.

Therefore, Zelensky’s comparison to Hitler does not hold water. Zelensky is not a Nazi, nor is he committing genocide, so comparing him to Hitler is unfounded. This is well-known Kremlin propaganda that has been spreading since the beginning of the war and is intended to justify Russia’s military aggression

Therefore, we assess the post we are analyzing as untrue.

 

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