Vladimir Putin,
the Russian president, has often said that the battle in Ukraine is to “denazify”
the country. His stated rationale for the sending in the troops into Ukraine
was to affect a “demilitarisation and denazification” of the country. But in an
assertive retort, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky asked Putin on Friday, “How
can I be a Nazi?”

Zelensky, 44, a
comic-turned-President, is Jewish. He has said that three of his grandfather’s
brothers were killed in the Holocaust. “How can I be a Nazi? Explain it to my
grandfather who went through the entire war in the infantry of the Soviet army,
and died a colonel in independent Ukraine,” Zelensky said, in a speech in
Russians addressed to Russians.

In the speech,
Zelensky also called upon Russians to consider the cost of the war. “What are
you fighting for and with whom? Many of you have family in Ukraine. Some have
studied in Ukrainian universities. Some have been friends with Ukrainians. You
know our character. You know our people. You know our principles. You know what
we value. So listen to yourselves. Listen to reason.”

“The Ukraine on
your news and Ukraine in real life are two completely different countries – and
the main difference between them is: Ours is real. You are told we are Nazis.
But could a people who lost more than 8 million lives in the battle against
Nazism support Nazism,” said Zelensky.

Meanwhile,
Vladimir Putin, in a televised speech Friday, exhorted the Ukrainian military
to overthrow its government. “Take power into your own hands,” he said, adding,
“It seems like it will be easier for us to agree with you than with this gang
of drug addicts and neo-Nazis.” Attacking the Ukrainian government, the Russian
president said it was “hiding behind people so that it can blame Russia for
civilian casualties.”

In an earlier
speech, the one to which Zelensky responded, Putin had said, “We will seek to
demilitarise and denazify Ukraine, as well as bring to trial those who
perpetrated numerous bloody crimes against civilians, including against citizens
of the Russian Federation.”