German Chancellor Friedrich Merz drew historical parallels between russian dictator vladimir putin's military aggression in Ukraine and the actions of Nazi Germany on the eve of World War II.
He said this during a conference of his CDU/CSU party, Ntv reports.
Thus, Merz criticized the policies of former Chancellor Angela Merkel, although he did not name her. He stated that in fact, even before February 24, 2022, when the aggressor state of russia launched a full-scale invasion, there should have been an understanding of "the times we live in."
At the same time, he stated that the day "when we should have known this" was in May 2014 - during the escalation of the war in the Ukrainian Donbas.
Merz noted that in those days, a historical analogy was often used - 2014 was compared to 1914, that is, with the beginning of World War I. According to Merz, "at least in retrospect" this turned out to be a very wrong analogy.
According to him, it would be correct to consider 1938 as a historical analogy: the Munich Agreement, under which British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain ceded the Czechoslovak Sudetenland to Nazi Germany.
Thus, Merz indirectly compared putin to Hitler. The publication quotes Merz as saying: if Ukraine falls, then this will not be enough for the russian ruler, "just as the Sudetenland was not enough in 1938."
He called putin's goal "a cardinal change in borders in Europe, the restoration of (russia) within the borders of the former Soviet Union."
Reference. France and Great Britain had political obligations to protect Czechoslovakia. In negotiations with Germany, they made concessions to avoid an armed declaration of war on Germany. The result was the Munich Agreement of 1938, as a result of which the Sudetenland became part of the Third Reich, and Wehrmacht troops immediately entered its territory.
The annexation of the Sudetenland led to the liquidation of the Czechoslovak Republic in March 1939, when the Third Reich seized the entire territory of the country, and significant stocks of weapons from the former Czechoslovak army entered Germany.
And on September 1, 1939, Germany under the dictatorship of Hitler attacked Poland, which was the beginning of World War II.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that he had long stopped guessing what russian dictator vladimir putin had "in his head" and was looking at the facts. He called the existence of a dictator ready to sacrifice a million of his own people a fact.
Rutte also warned that NATO is the next target of the aggressor country of russia. According to him, many NATO member states are underestimating the situation. They also mistakenly believe that time is on their side.
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