Polish President Andrzej Duda sharply criticized the leaders of France and Germany for their phone calls with Russian President Vladimir Putin, saying it was like having conversations with Adolf Hitler during World War II, according to the German daily Bild.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron have had individual phone calls with Putin since Russia launched its devastating invasion of Ukraine. Macron in particular aroused the ire of Ukraine by saying that Russia must not be “humiliated” in order to preserve the chances of a diplomatic solution. Duda, in an interview with Bild published on his YouTube channel on Wednesday night, said that such discussions they only legitimized an illegal war in the Ukraine. “Did anyone talk to Adolf Hitler like that during World War II?” Doubt said. “Did someone say that Adolf Hitler should keep up appearances? That we should proceed in such a way that it is not humiliating for Adolf Hitler? I have not heard such voices.”
The conflict in Ukraine, described by Moscow as a “special military operation” to end perceived threats to its security, has leveled cities, killed thousands of civilians and forced more than seven million people to flee the country. its Western allies say Russia is waging an unprovoked war to seize territory. In a joint call with Putin on May 28, Scholz and Macron urged him to release the 2,500 Ukrainian fighters captured at Mariupol’s Azovstal steel plant and to talk directly with Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky, according to Macron’s Elysee Palace.
Italy and Hungary have urged the European Union to explicitly call for a ceasefire in Ukraine and peace talks with Russia, at loggerheads with other member states such as Poland determined to take a hard line with Moscow. Last month, Zelensky criticized suggestions by some in the West that kyiv cede territory and make concessions to end the war, saying the idea smacked of attempts to appease Nazi Germany in 1938 in the run-up to World War II.
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