Zelenskyy responds to accusations of Nazism: 'It's funny to hear about this from Putin'

In response to a request from the interviewer to comment on several different arguments put forward by Russian President Vladimir Putin, which are now being echoed by some people in the US regarding the nature of Ukraine, President Zelenskyy reacted sharply.

"Putin has suggested that that Ukraine is a Nazi regime, that there ought to be nazification. Simultaneously he has suggested that Ukraine is a wild hotbed of social leftism, very big on transgenderism samesex marriage, abortion. How do you respond to those two varying accusations about Ukraine itself?" Shapiro asked Zelenskyy.

In response, the Ukrainian president stated that it's laughable.

"Well, it's funny to hear about this from Putin. I mean and and addressing that to me, you know, any talks about Nazism directed to me, you know, through his actions he came very close to the results of the Nazi, that was dominating in Europe like 100 years ago. And Putin is coming very close through the actions of his armed forces like particularly in the first days of the full-scale war," Zelenskyy said.

The president also confirmed that he had met with Ukraine's chief rabbi, Moshe Azman, the leader of the All-Ukrainian Congress of Jewish Hasidic Religious Communities. And not only with him.

"I think he's a heroic person. He's a heroic father. His son is a Jew. Their their family there there's a Jew. It's a Jewish family, but his son went to war. Do you think whether his son would be fighting for a Nazi regime? That's, you know, that's not adequate, what Putin is saying. You know, the Jews they can't be fighting for the Nazi regime. They cannot be sending his son to the war for the Nazi regime," said the head of state.

Zelenskyy also noted, "You know that I have some of the ancestors Jews and telling that Ukrainians are Nazis that I'm a Nazi and that I represent a key of Nazi regime, look it's kind of it's it's primitive."

The president expressed the view that some different evidence or arguments should be provided, at least something, because we have compelling evidence of Putin's Nazi regime and the consequences of his war against us, holding his regime accountable before the International Criminal Court.

"There's the deportation of Ukrainian children, which is recognized by the whole world. And he has some of the leaders close to him. These are the leaders who have always had some tight relations. I mean the economic relations with Russia, those in the Middle East, those somewhere in the global south, even. They are fighting for Putin to return back our children. Because the abdication of children, taking them away from their relatives, even those children who lost their parents during this war, but taking those children away from the grandparents," he said.

As Zelenskyy added, "I'm sorry that's but that is something that is truly more like a modern Nazis, but that's not like a Ukrainian Nazis."

Russian Nazi propaganda

Russia systematically uses the rhetoric of fighting Nazism as a propaganda tool to justify its aggressive actions against other countries. In the case of Ukraine, the Russian authorities have actively spread the notion of a supposed Nazi regime in Kyiv since the beginning of 2014.

This tactic is aimed not only at Russia’s domestic audience but also at the international community, attempting to discredit Ukraine in the eyes of other countries. In reality, such accusations are baseless and aim to divert attention from the imperialistic ambitions of the terrorist state and violations of international law.

Additionally, in January, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) called on the dictatorial regimes in Belarus and Russia not to manipulate the theme of fighting Nazism to justify their geopolitical ambitions.