To the editor:
I give here two arguments against claims by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin of the reasons he is bombing and burning Ukrainian cities to the ground, killing more than 100 children and several hundred Ukrainian citizens and displacing three million innocent civilians to NATO countries, who three weeks ago had families, lives, homes and jobs.
The first claim is that his army is freeing Ukraine of its fascist Nazi leadership. Ukrainian President [Volodimir] Zelenskyy is not only Jewish but is the grandson of a man whose three brothers were murdered by Hitler. To call President Zelenskyy a Nazi is like calling Woody Allen a Nazi. It would be ridiculous if it weren’t horribly tragic.
In contrast, this week Putin stated that Russia itself needs to be “cleansed” of Russians who are protesting his attack on Ukraine. The word “cleansed” is exactly the word Hitler used in Germany to kill his own citizens. In other words, it is Putin who is the fascist and who is not only killing innocent Ukrainians and destroying their beloved homeland but is now announcing that he plans to kill his own people who disagree with him.
Putin’s second claim is that Ukraine has biolabs that are creating biological weapons. If this were true, wouldn’t he order his generals to go straight to where those labs are located, since he knows so much about them, surround them, seize them and destroy them? Why would he instead bomb every city and village his soldiers reach and kill not only soldiers but purposefully target and kill civilians? There are biolabs in the Ukraine but they are researching cures for such diseases as COVID-19.
Putin doesn’t give a hoot about biolabs. He wants to recreate the Soviet Union he so misses, having been in the S.S. when it existed. Let us hope and pray that Putin is deposed by his generals and the Ukraine is spared, as much as it can be now being so horribly destroyed, and that someone decent becomes the Russian leader.
Kate Angevin
Caribou
