Putin says he will ‘denazify’ Ukraine. Here’s the history behind that claim.
By Miriam Berger
February 24, 2022|Updated February 25, 2022 at 1:44 p.m. EST
Russian President Vladimir Putin invoked the Nazis on Thursday when he announced his decision to launch a large-scale military operation in Ukraine.
The Russian leader said that one of the goals of the offensive was to “denazify” the country, part of a long-running effort by Putin to delegitimize Ukrainian nationalism and sell the incursion to his constituency at home.
The rhetoric around fighting fascism resonates deeply in Russia, which made tremendous sacrifices battling Nazi Germany in World War II. Critics say that Putin is exploiting the trauma of the war and twisting history for his own interests.
The latest on the war in Ukraine
In his narrative, the West overlooked the role the Soviet Union, Russia’s predecessor state, played in the fight. In the war’s aftermath, the United States and other Western nations formed the NATO military alliance as a bulwark against the Soviet Union.
Now, Putin sees NATO as an existential threat — and Ukraine’s bid for membership as a red line for Russia’s security.
“When Putin was growing up, the Second World War was at the center of Soviet identity and the enemies were the fascists,” said Timothy Snyder, a professor of history at Yale University.
The irony now, Snyder said, is that Putin appears to be “fighting a war the way that actual Nazis did,” invading neighbors on the pretext that their borders are irrelevant.
In maps, videos and photos, how Russia’s attack on Ukraine is unfolding on the ground
But Putin’s attempt to recast Ukraine’s government as fascist drew widespread condemnation Thursday, including from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who is both Jewish and had family members die in the Holocaust.
Three of Zelensky’s great uncles were executed as part of the German-led genocide of European Jews during the war, the president said on a trip to Jerusalem in 2020. His grandfather, who was the brother of those killed, survived.
“Forty years later, his grandson became president,” Zelenksy said in an address.
The Ukrainian leader also fired back at Putin’s Nazi claim Thursday, saying on Twitter that Russia had attacked Ukraine just “as Nazi Germany did.”
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One of World War II’s worst massacres took place near the Ukrainian capital in 1941, when German-led forces killed tens of thousands of Jews in the ravine of Babi Yar.
“As of today, our countries are on different sides of world history,” Zelensky said on Twitter, addressing Putin. “Russia has embarked on a path of evil.”
According to Michael McFaul, a former U.S. Ambassador to Russia, “there is a history of some Ukrainians fighting on the Nazi side … but a very small group.”
McFaul made the remarks in an appearance on MSNBC Thursday.
Putin, he said, “is pulling on that thread from history to say that what you had was a neo-Nazi usurpation of power [in Ukraine] in 2014,” when Ukrainian protesters ousted the Russian-backed leader and the new government pushed to join NATO.
Putin’s attack on Ukraine echoes Hitler’s takeover of Czechoslovakia
In response to those protests, Russia invaded and annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine and began backing a separatist insurgency in the country’s east. The conflict there has simmered for years.
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Operating in Ukraine are several nationalist paramilitary groups, such as the Azov movement and Right Sector, that espouse neo-Nazi ideology. While high-profile, they appear to have little public support. Only one far-right party, Svoboda, is represented in Ukraine’s parliament, and only holds one seat.
Now Putin is trying to paint Zelensky’s government as “Nazis supported by NATO,” McFaul said.
According to Putin, he must fight to save the Russian-speaking community in eastern Ukraine.
In his speech announcing the start of the operation, he said that the “goal is to protect the people who are subjected to abuse, genocide from the Kyiv regime.”
“To this end, we will seek to demilitarize and denazify Ukraine and put to justice those that committed numerous bloody crimes against peaceful people, including Russian nationals,” Putin said, according to Russia’s state news agency.
His language is also a red flag that he intends to overthrow the government in Kyiv, said Sergey Radchenko, a professor of international relations at Johns Hopkins University.
The Kremlin has long tried to “present the whole idea of Ukrainian nationalism as a neo-Nazi movement,” he said, adding that the narrative is historically false.
At great risk for Ukraine and Russia, Putin signals a dark endgame
Following Putin’s logic, Radchenko said, Russia’s end goal in Ukraine could be to rid its government of “Ukrainian nationalists … who in their eyes are Nazis.”
At the same time, Snyder said, Putin’s moves to label Ukraine’s government as fascist are “completely emptied of any specificity.”
During the Cold War, the term came to apply to anyone in the West or those who opposed Russia, he said.
“Anyone can be a fascist” in Russian propaganda, Snyder said, adding that it “carries a vague emotion … for anyone anti-Russian.”
Ukraine’s state-run Twitter account on Thursday posted an image of what appeared to be a tall Adolf Hitler caressing the face of a smaller Putin.
“This is not a ‘meme’, but our and your reality right now,” the caption read.
War in Ukraine: What you need to know
The latest: Belarus is preparing to send soldiers into Ukraine in support of the Russian invasion as soon as Monday. More than 400,000 Ukrainians have fled to European neighbors since the invasion, according to the United Nations. Putin has put nuclear forces on alert.
The fight: The war isn’t working out the way Russia intended, and Putin is facing enormous pressure from abroad. Kharkiv has become a key battleground. Photos and videos show what the situation on the ground looks.
Maps: Russia’s assault on Ukraine has been extensive with strikes and attacks across the entire country. We’re tracking the invasion here.
The response: The United States and key allies put into effect on Monday sweeping new penalties aimed at crippling Russia’s economy.
How we got here: The conflict playing out between Russia and Ukraine is one marked by land borders and shaped by strategic influence. These four maps help explain the deep roots of the conflict and where things stand right now.
How you can help: Here are ways those in the U.S. can help support the Ukrainian people.
Read our full coverage of the Russia-Ukraine crisis.
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By Miriam BergerMiriam Berger is a staff writer reporting on foreign news for The Washington Post from Washington, D.C. Before joining The Post in 2019 she was based in Jerusalem and Cairo and freelance reported around the Middle East, as well as parts of Africa and Central Asia. Twitter
Four maps that explain the Russia-Ukraine conflict
The crisis is centered in part on land borders and strategic influence. Moscow sees Ukraine as an important buffer against NATO. But Ukraine sees Russia as an aggressor that, even prior to this week’s invasion, had already occupied parts of Ukrainian territory.
Separatists in Donetsk and Luhansk, backed by Russia, have been fighting Ukrainian government forces since 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea and supported the establishment of separatist enclaves in the eastern part of the country.
Here are four maps that help explain the deep roots of the conflict and where things stand right now.
How are Russia and Ukraine linked historically?
The historical links date as far back as the 9th century, when a group of people called the Rus moved their capital to Kyiv — a legacy Russian President Vladimir Putin has often invoked when arguing that Ukraine is bound to Russia.
Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union until it declared independence in August 1991.
SWE.
NOR.
FIN.
EST.
LAT.
LITH.
Boundary of former
Soviet Union
Moscow
GER.
POL.
BELARUS
MONGOLIA
MOL.—
KAZAKHSTAN
GEORGIA
KYRGYZ.
ARMENIA—
AZER.
CHINA
TAJIK.
SYRIA
IRAN
AFGH.
IRAQ
Ukraine served as a strategic part of the Soviet Union, with a large agriculture industry and important ports on the Black Sea.
The countries’ historical connection is rhetorically present in the current tensions. “I am confident that true sovereignty of Ukraine is possible only in partnership with Russia,” Putin wrote in July. “Together we have always been and will be many times stronger and more successful. For we are one people.”
Why does Putin care whether Ukraine joins NATO?
NATO was founded in 1949 to protect against Soviet aggression. The alliance has since expanded to 30 countries, including the former Soviet republics of Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. The treaty states that if one nation is invaded or attacked by a third party, all nations in NATO will collectively mobilize in its defense.
The Kremlin is demanding guarantees from NATO that Ukraine and Georgia — another former Soviet republic that Russia briefly invaded in 2008 — will not join the alliance. The Biden administration and NATO allies say Putin cannot deny Ukraine that right, but nothing is in the works to grant the country membership anytime soon.
Either country’s admission into the alliance would increase NATO’s footprint along Russia’s borders.
NATO member states
CANADA
Atlantic
Ocean
Alaska
Greenland
U.S.
(DENMARK)
ICELAND
SPAIN
Arctic
Ocean
U.K.
North
Pole
FRANCE
NOR.
GER.
SWE.
Pacific
Ocean
FIN.
POL.
BELARUS
UKRAINE
TURKEY
JAPAN
CHINA
N. KOR.
GEORGIA
MONGOLIA
What parts of Ukraine did Russia control before the current invasion?
In 2014, Russian military forces annexed Crimea on the Black Sea. Moscow-backed separatists also took control of the eastern industrial regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, which are on Russia’s border. The ongoing conflict in eastern Ukraine has claimed about 14,000 lives.
Percentage of population that identified Russian as their first language
(2001 census, most recent data available)
0
100%
BELARUS
POLAND
RUSSIA
Chernobyl
Lviv
Kyiv
Dnieper
Kharkiv
Luhansk
UKRAINE
Dnipropetrovsk
Donetsk
Separatist-
controlled
area
ROMANIA
100 MILES
Sea of
Azov
Odessa
Crimea
RUSSIA
Sevastopol
Black Sea
According to a 2001 census, more than 50 percent of the population in Crimea and Donetsk identified Russian as their native language. (Ukraine has not conducted a more recent census.) Putin says he is defending the rights of Russian speakers in those areas.
The conflict in the Donbas began heating up last week. An observer mission from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe counted nearly 600 cease-fire violations on Thursday.
On Monday, Russia formally recognized the two self-proclaimed republics and announced it would send troops there. European officials confirmed Tuesday that Russian forces had arrived in the separatist enclaves. The Kremlin said Tuesday that its recognition of the separatist territories includes areas controlled by the Kyiv government. That announcement laid the groundwork for a full-scale assault on targets across the country beginning early Thursday.
Are there Russian-linked separatist regions in other countries?
Yes. These “frozen conflicts” have been around since after the Soviet Union fell in 1991. They exist in the former Soviet republics of Azerbaijan, Moldova and Georgia and are widely seen as part of the Kremlin’s larger strategy to extend influence and evade sanctions.
BELARUS
POLAND
RUSSIA
Kyiv
KAZAKHSTAN
UKRAINE
Separatist-
controlled area
MOLDOVA
ROMANIA
Abkhazia
South
Ossetia
Transnistria
Nagorno-
Karabakh
Crimea
BULGARIA
Annexed by
Russia in 2014
Black
Sea
GEORGIA
AZERBAIJAN
ARMENIA
GREECE
AZER.
TURKEY
200 MILES
IRAN
For example, a 2018 Washington Post investigation found that in separatist-controlled eastern Ukraine, officials transfer money to the Russian-supported breakaway region of South Ossetia in Georgia, where the funds are then wired to Russia. Russia then uses the money to pay for goods that are shipped directly to eastern Ukraine.
In Transnistria, pro-Russian separatists broke away from Moldova in 1991, saying they identified more with Ukraine and Russia than with the newly formed Moldova republic that was more linked to Romania.
Nagorno-Karabakh, an ethnic Armenian enclave within the internationally recognized borders of Azerbaijan, became a disputed region after the fall of the Soviet Union and the independence of both countries. In September 2020, thousands of troops were killed and entire villages were displaced in a bloody conflict that lasted six weeks. The eventual peace deal was brokered by Putin, showing how Russia has become a key power broker in a conflict that dates to the Soviet era. Russian peacekeepers now patrol the enclave.
Abkhazia and South Ossetia have effectively broken away from Georgia with Russian help, both declaring independence in the early 1990s and remaining strategically linked to the Kremlin.
Hannah Dormido and Claire Parker contributed to this report, which has been updated.
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