Ukraine President
Volodymyr Zelensky said Wednesday that 6,000 Russian troops have been killed in
the last six days. The Ukrainian president said Russia aims to erase Ukraine,
its history and people, Reuters reported citing a video. Wednesday is the
seventh day of Russian aggression on Ukraine.
Several Ukrainian
cities, including Kharkiv and Maruipol have come under Moscow’s attack. Russian
troops seem poised to attack Kyiv soon. “This is no time to be neutral,”
Zelensky, 44, an actor turned president, said. Amid the Russian advance, Zelensky
has consistently called for global support, especially that of the United
States and other NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization) allies.
On Tuesday, the
Russians shelled Kyiv, next to Babyn Yar – the site of a World War Two massacre
of tens of thousands of Jews by German occupation troops and Ukrainian auxiliaries
– President Zelensky said, “This strike proves that for many people in Russia
our Kyiv is absolutely foreign.”
“We all died again
by Babyn Yar. Although the world has promised again and again that it will
never happen again,” said Zelensky, a jew whom Vladimir accuses of being complicit
in the rise of ‘Nazi’ fervour in Ukraine.
“Don’t you see
what is happening? That’s why it is very important now that you, millions of
Jews around the world, do not stay silent. Because Nazism is born in silence.
Scream about murdering of civilians, scream about murdering of Ukrainians.”
In an earlier speech,
Zelensky had addressed Russians saying, “The Ukraine on your news and Ukraine
in real life are two completely different countries – and the main difference
between the two is: Ours is real. You are told we are Nazis. But could a people
who lost more than eight million people in the battle against Nazism support
Nazism?”
The Nazi
reference, for the first time recently, was actually made by Russian President
Vladimir Putin. Putin, prior to formally dispatching troops to Ukraine, had
said the objective of the aggressive move was to “demilitarise” and “denazify”
the country.
