Common to both ideologies is the belief in the supremacy of one’s own people over others and therefore, their right to decide the fate of others, the emphasis on anti-democracy, a cult of the leader, a cult of power, disregard for human rights and international law, the theory of an international conspiracy that should be stopped, and appeals to their heroic past whose glory must be revived.
But Putin has borrowed from both Stalin and Hitler, not only their ideas but also their methods. From the first – deportation, filtration and concentration camps, hunger as a weapon and from the second – bombing of cities as an instrument of terror against the people whose will he seeks to break.
Since the first day of the large-scale Russian aggression, thousands of bombs and missiles have fallen on Ukrainian cities, launched by the Russians from their own and Belarusian territories, the Black and even Caspian Seas. They deliberately attack not only military or critical infrastructure facilities, but also civilian buildings – in particular residential buildings.
Unable to break the will of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Putin decided to intimidate society as a whole. Ukrainians under the pressure of terror would be forced to change the position of their political leadership.
Adolf Hitler formulated the same goals when he carried out mass bombings of British cities. Frightened by explosions, destruction and death, the citizens of Great Britain had to use their democratic mechanisms, or force London to change its course as needed by Berlin.
This “special operation” of the Nazis went down in history as “The Blitz”. It lasted eight months: from 7 September 1940 to 10 May 1941 and affected several dozen cities. More than 43 thousand Britons were killed and about 1.5 million lost their homes. Coventry, a city with a thousand-year history, was completely destroyed.
The main target of their attack was London. The British capital survived 57 consecutive nights of bombings, hundreds of planes dropped more than 6,000 tons of bombs on the city.
But it was not possible to break the British, who, after the capitulation of France, were left alone with the attempts of the Third Reich to conquer the world.
Brave pilots shot down German planes in the sky while anti-aircraft guns tried to get them from the ground. Thousands of residents set out to restore order, dismantle debris and rescue neighbours. The Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, not only addressed the citizens with encouraging speeches on the radio but talked to them among the ruins, came to the shelters and subways where Londoners were hiding. And most importantly, he continued active diplomatic work to involve the USA in the fight against Hitler. In the end, he succeeded – the American not only decided on sending military aid in the form of Lend-Lease, but also at the end of 1941 directly entered the war with the Third Reich.
In the fifth month of the war, the rashist dictator, who failed to seize Ukraine with his troops, again took up terror, dropping bombs and rockets from the sky onto our land.
In just four days of June, from the 24th to the 28th, the Russian Federation fired 131 missiles over Ukraine as reported by Valery Zaluzhny, the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces.
Again, death is coming to residential buildings in Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Odesa and Kyiv. Hundreds of people have become victims of attacks on such “military objectives” like a shopping center in Kremenchuk. We can only imagine what the scale of destruction would be if it were not for the skill and courage of our defenders.
But Putin’s results will be the same as Hitler’s. I’m certain that he will not break the Ukrainians, as the German aggressor failed to break the British more than 80 years ago.
And by the way, the Russians should not forget how German cities were bombed just as mercilessly.