Lavrov Compares US Policy Towards Russia to Hitler’s Invasion of the Soviet Union

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has accused the US of pursuing policies against Russia similar to that Nazi leader Adolf Hitler once conducted against the Soviet Union.

“The US has subjugated and mobilized practically the entire collective West to make Ukraine an instrument of war with Russia — just as Hitler at the time brought the majority of European countries under arms to invade the Soviet Union,” Lavrov said Monday during a speech in the Duma, the Russian parliament.

Parliament unanimously approved the annexation of Ukraine’s Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions on Monday. On Friday, President Vladimir Putin and the Moscow-installed occupiers in the four territories signed internationally unrecognized treaties to join the Russian Federation.

Lavrov accused Ukraine of curtailing people’s rights to their Russian language, religion and culture. He defended the annexation to protect the Russian-speaking population from discrimination against a “Nazi regime” in Kyiv.

Putin had repeatedly emphasized that the regions would receive the full protection of nuclear power. Consequently, any attacks by Ukraine on the four regions after the completion of the annexation would be considered an attack on Russia. Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said Monday that the Luhansk and Donetsk regions within their Ukrainian administrative borders would become fully part of Russia. In the Donetsk region, Russian forces control just over 50 percent so far.

According to Peskov, the borders of the Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions will be established later. Ukrainian troops advance in all regions. On Ukraine’s bid to join NATO, echoed in Kyiv by President Volodimir Zelensky, Peskov said Russia is watching but has so far failed to see a majority. The Kremlin spokesman also said Ukraine’s planned accession to NATO was one reason for the war that Russia started on February 24.