MOSCOW (Reuters) – Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday called the Canadian parliament’s standing ovations to honour a Ukrainian war veteran who served in one of Adolf Hitler’s Waffen SS units “disgusting” and said it showed Moscow was right to “de-Nazify” Ukraine.
Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau last month formally apologised after the speaker of the Canadian House of Commons praised a Nazi veteran in the chamber while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was present.
The episode played into the narrative promoted by Putin that he sent his army into Ukraine last year to “demilitarise and denazify” the country. Kyiv and its Western allies say Russia’s actions constitute an unprovoked war of aggression designed to grab territory.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who is Jewish, says Moscow’s claims that his administration is run by Nazis are absurd.
(Reporting by Vladimir Soldatkin and Guy Faulconbridge; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Andrew Osborn)
