Russian media has increasingly compared events in Ukraine to the darkest crimes of Nazi Germany, ahead of next week´s anniversary of Soviet victory in World War II.
Since the beginning of the crisis in Ukraine, Russian television and officials have made frequent references to the “fascists” Moscow claims are now running Ukraine.
The fire in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa that claimed at least 42 lives on Friday has been swiftly dubbed a new “reprisal raid” and even the “new Khatyn,” a reference to the Belarussian village where 149 residents were burned alive by the Nazis in 1943.
Russian President Vladimir Putin´s spokesman on Saturday pointedly referred to the Odessa tragedy as a “reprisal raid,” saying “extremists” burned people alive.
“What has happened, especially in the Trade Unions House, brings to mind the crimes of the Nazis during World War II,” pro-Kremlin lawmaker Leonid Slutsky told reporters in Moscow, referring to the Odessa fire
