Russia offended by Zelensky’s statement that Soviet Union was responsible for WWII
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s statement that the Soviet Union was responsible for the start of World War II has elicited a significant response in Russia.
The Kremlin described his statement as “offensive”, TASS reports.
“We categorically do not agree with this statement. In this statement, the president of Ukraine is aligning himself with the extremely erroneous, in our opinion, perspective of the Polish leadership, and is aligning himself with a perspective which is offensive to tens of millions of Russians and citizens of CIS states, whose parents, grandfathers and relatives gave their lives to free Europe, including Poland, from fascism,” said Kremlin Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on Tuesday.
Peskov claimed that “millions of Ukrainians” do not support Zelensky’s position.
“And so we do not accept this statement, we consider it erroneous and offensive with respect to the memory of our grandfathers,” Putin’s press secretary emphasized.
Leonid Slutsky, Chairperson of the International Affairs Committee of Russia’s State Duma, described Zelensky’s words as “shameful and sacrilegious”.
During a press conference in Poland on January 27, Zelensky said that the criminal collusion between the Third Reich and the Soviet Union in 1939 led to the start of WWII and paved the way for the Holocaust