DISINFO: Ukrainians and Western Europeans are the direct descendants of Hitler
SUMMARY
The war against the Nazis in Ukraine and Europe is a "new patriotic war". Josep Borrell, compared the Nazis in Ukraine to Hitler's Nazis, indicating that victory in it would be for Russia. He recalled that Russia defeated Napoleon and Hitler. He himself spoke of the similarity. Accordingly, Ukronazis and Western Europeans are the direct heirs of those who fought against Russia. Hence the war with them is a new national war, and the victory will be ours, as in 1812 and 1945.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets serving as justification for Russia’s full-scale military aggression against Ukraine.
There is nothing in EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security's Josep Borrell's speech before the Nueva Economia Forum in held in Spain that likens Ukrainians to Nazis. It is telling that Borrell himself anticipated that his speech will be distorted saying during the event that every word he says will be twisted.
Josep Borrell was only saying that Russia has in the past been able to make comebacks in its wars after being on the brink of defeat. He does so to promote the sense of seriousness and to mobilise the necessary political will which the situation requires to confront Russia's agression in Ukraine. There is nothing in this statement that implies that Russia's rivals in these wars have anything in common.
In fact, the myth of a Nazi Europe has been widely used by pro-Kremlin outlets since Russia attacked Ukraine and illegally annexed its peninsula of Crimea in 2014. The European Union was set up with the aim of ending the frequent and bloody wars between neighbours, which culminated in the Second World War. In 2012, the EU was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for advancing the causes of peace, reconciliation, democracy and human rights in Europe.
The myth of Nazi-ruled Ukraine appeared during the Revolution of Dignity (aka Euromaidan) protests in late 2013 - early 2014, when the then-president Viktor Yanukovych was toppled and later fled to Russia. The Kremlin has been using this myth since then to discredit Kyiv’s shift toward Euro-Atlantic policy. The far-right groups had a limited presence during the Euromaidan protests. Nazi and Communist ideologies were banned by Ukrainian law in 2015. During the 2019 presidential election, the highest-rated nationalist candidate, Ruslan Koshulynskyy, won 1.62% of the vote. A united front of all radical right-wing parties in the 2019 parliamentary elections winning only 2.15% of the vote falling far short of the 5% minimum threshold for entry into parliament.
Learn more about the reasons behind the Kremlin's obsession with framing Ukraine as a Nazi state in the EUvsDisinfo analysis titled "Why does Putin portray himself as the tamer of neo-Nazism".
Read more disinformation cases claiming that the the EU is Hitler's 'New Europe', that the European Union justifies Nazism, that the The EU is a Nazi project, that the European Union has Nazi Roots and that the The EU continues the aggressive policies of Nazi.