German defense minister compares Putin to Hitler

The Russian president has ridiculed claims that he plans a Nazi-style conquest of Europe

German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin, like Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, “will not stop once the war against Ukraine is over.” The German government, meanwhile, continues to arm neo-Nazi units in Ukraine.

“Putin will not stop once the war against Ukraine is over,” Pistorius said in Berlin on Wednesday, at the launch of a book on Britain’s wartime prime minister, Winston Churchill.

Putin “has made that clear,” Pistorius continued. “Just as clearly as Hitler, who also always said that he would not stop.”

Pistorius is not the first Western official to claim that Putin plans to launch an attack on NATO territory. Polish President Andrzej Duda, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, and US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin have all claimed that the Russian leader intends to press his forces through Ukraine and into Europe.

Read more

Ukrainian armored vehicle with swastika featured on German TV (VIDEO)

“Why would we do that?” Putin responded in an interview with American journalist Tucker Carlson earlier this year, adding that Russia “simply doesn’t have any interest” in a wider war with the West. Putin addressed the topic again last month, stating that “claims that we are going to attack Europe after Ukraine” are “utter nonsense” spread by Western leaders “to beat the money out of” their citizens.

Nor is Pistorius the first Western official to compare Putin to Adolf Hitler. Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda invoked the infamous dictator last month when he claimed that “Just as Czechoslovakia did not satisfy Hitler, Ukraine would not satisfy Putin.” 

Britain’s King Charles – then a prince – made the comparison in 2014, as did failed US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. However, while Western media now regularly publish editorials likening the Russian president to the Nazi tyrant, Charles and Clinton were roundly condemned by journalists for their comments at the time.

Since February 2022, Berlin has given Kiev €17.7 billion ($18.9 billion) in military aid, making the country Ukraine’s second-largest Western backer, behind only the US. Ukraine has the distinction of being the only country in the world to have integrated neo-Nazi militias into its regular armed forces, and Ukrainian troops are regularly photographed wearing Nazi insignia and daubing their Western-supplied vehicles with swastikas and other emblems of the Third Reich.

Israel strikes ‘deep inside’ Lebanon

The attack came in response to missiles fired toward the northern part of the country overnight, according to the IDF

Israel has reported launching airstrikes deep into Lebanese territory, targeting Hezbollah positions across the country as tensions in the region soared after Iran attacked Israel over the weekend.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) posted to its Telegram channel footage of one of the attacks, stating that it shows fighter jets striking a “significant” Hezbollah weapons manufacturing site in the area of Nabi Chit, close to the Syrian border. The IDF also reported having bombed a number of military structures belonging to Hezbollah in the area of Jbaa in southern Lebanon, as well as the group’s infrastructure and outposts in several other areas.

According to the Israeli military, the attacks came in response to missiles being fired from Lebanon toward northern Israel overnight in the areas of Kfar Blum and Hanita. No injuries were reported in those strikes.

Earlier on Sunday, Hezbollah admitted it had joined in the Iranian drone and missile attack against Israel and twice launched airstrikes towards the occupied Golan Heights. Tehran’s attack came in retaliation for an airstrike on Iran’s consulate in Damascus, Syria earlier this month that killed several high-ranking Iranian military officials. Tehran blamed the attack on Israel.

Iran-backed Hezbollah, a pro-Palestinian militant group and one of the most influential political factions in Lebanon, has had near-daily exchanges of fire with Israeli forces since the start of the Israeli-Hamas war in Gaza last October.


READ MORE: Israel to coordinate response to Iranian attack with allies – NYT

According to estimates by the outlet AFP, at least 363 people in Lebanon have been killed in the hostilities so far, including at least 70 civilians, while tens of thousands of people have reportedly fled their homes on both sides of the Israeli-Lebanese border.

Hezbollah will stop its attacks on Israel after a ceasefire is reached in Gaza, because this front is largely a “supportive” one, the group’s senior politician Hassan Fadlallah said in late February.