Recall that Russian President Vladimir Putin cited “de-Nazification” as justification for invading Ukraine.
“We will strive to achieve demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine,” Putin said in a television address before the Russian military invasion of Ukraine. Putin is channeling #antifa, who believe western liberal democracy to be fascist.https://t.co/TEzv1qMieY
— Andy Ngô 🏳️🌈 (@MrAndyNgo) February 24, 2022
So … how’s that de-Nazification been going so far?
What about that de-nazification of Ukraine Putin was talking about? https://t.co/stzC65dgCi
— Anna Ahronheim (@AAhronheim) March 1, 2022
Well, let’s see:
The Russian campaign to “denazify” Ukraine just hit a Holocaust memorial https://t.co/ONsaewdRJ2
— max seddon (@maxseddon) March 1, 2022
Naturally.
Just now, a powerful barrage is underway. A missile hit the place where Babyn Yar memorial complex is located! Once again, these barbarians are murdering the victims of Holocaust!
— Andriy Yermak (@AndriyYermak) March 1, 2022
In this strike, the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial, which marks the 34,000 Jews massacred there when Kyiv was under Nazi occupation, was also hit, the site's board says in a statement.
>> https://t.co/Xc7FfMr8l2— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) March 1, 2022
A spokesperson for the site says the extent of the damage is not yet known and a security team has been dispatched to make an assessment.
— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) March 1, 2022
Russia targets the TV tower in Kyiv. It's just next to the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, site of massacres carried out by Nazi forces on 29–30 September 1941.#UkraineInvasion #Ukraine pic.twitter.com/ZNF9nJGsI4
— Alexander Khrebet/Олександр Хребет (@AlexKhrebet) March 1, 2022
An hour ago, #Putin's "de-nazification" attack on #Ukraine successfully struck the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial site.
It was established to memorialize the #Nazi murder of ~100,000 people in 1941, including the entire Jewish population of #Kyiv. pic.twitter.com/o78ZNKjQQj
— Charles Lister (@Charles_Lister) March 1, 2022
Recommended
Hard to claim you’re “de-nazifying” a country when you bomb their Holocaust memorial. https://t.co/zGKfDH6csI
— Andrew Weinstein (@Weinsteinlaw) March 1, 2022
It’s almost as if de-Nazification isn’t Putin’s real endgame.
Now Russia targets Ukrainian media, bombs Kyiv public TV station, located directly at the Babyn Yar memorial site, where Nazis have killed over 30,000 Jews in 1941. So Putin is currently bombing memorial site for victims of the Europe's biggest massacre on Jews.
— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) March 1, 2022
A normal denazification: you arrest Nazis, educate your people not to attack neighbour countries, be nice.
Russian "denazification": your chauvinist president wants to annex neighbours, attacks every country around him, kills civilians and bombs Holocaust memorial site. pic.twitter.com/wAV3Q8KyVi— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) March 1, 2022
This map demonstrates the proximity of Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial site and the public TV station. pic.twitter.com/ybPaEvC36s
— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) March 1, 2022
The northern part of Babyn Yar Holocaust memorial site is clearly hit by Russian air raid, the southern one maybe. Putin bombs Holocaust graves. pic.twitter.com/hhzCVdYKi7
— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) March 1, 2022
As some ask, why they built TV station at the memorial, it is important to clarify the history. The TV station was Soviet-built. Soviets wanted to suppress memory about Jews, Babyn Yar topic was banned. The first memorial was build after the collapse of the USSR, in free Ukraine.
— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) March 1, 2022
So it was "nationalistic" Ukraine which revived the memory about Holocaust victims, and it was the Soviets (who Putin admires) who built fist a landfill for industrial waste (yes!) on Babyn Yar, and later a TV station. They also banned a poem "Babyn Yar" by star poet Yevtushenko.
— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) March 1, 2022
In official Soviet historiography, there was no place for the Holocaust. Killed Jews were called "killed Soviet citizens". Soviet Union was an anti-semitic state grooming hate against Jews. Here is my old thread on Soviet anti-semitism + anti-ukrainianism: https://t.co/SOzw2IkxFY
— Sergej Sumlenny (@sumlenny) March 1, 2022
If anything, Vladimir Putin is taking the Nazis’ legacy and running with it, full-steam ahead.
>>
Babi Yar chairman Natan Sharansky: “Putin seeking to distort & manipulate the Holocaust to justify an illegal invasion of a sovereign democratic country is utterly abhorrent. It's symbolic he starts attacking Kyiv by bombing the site of Babi Yar, the biggest of Nazi massacre"
— Judah Ari Gross (@JudahAriGross) March 1, 2022
Vladimir Putin not only doesn’t care about Jews, but it can be quite convincingly argued that he actively despises them.
The hotel where I'm staying in Chisinau is full of Jewish families… fleeing from Putin's de-nazification of Ukraine.
— Danilo Elia 🇪🇺 (@daniloeliatweet) March 1, 2022
It seems appropriate to give the last word to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose own ancestors were murdered during the Holocaust:
To the world: what is the point of saying «never again» for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least 5 killed. History repeating…
— Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 1, 2022
Editor’s note: This post has been updated with additional tweets.