Statement by Chairman of the CC CPRF Gennady Zyuganov
From the outset the CPRF assessed the conflict in Ukraine as the struggle against Neo-Nazis who seized power during the February 2014 government coup. We have repeatedly put it to the Russian and international public that the Bandera lot who hold sway in Kiev are direct descendants of Hitler’s thugs who perpetrated atrocities against the citizens of Ukraine, Byelorussia and Russia during the Second World War.
Today we are getting fresh proof of this. Suffice it to look at those who have rushed to Ukraine to support their Nazi accomplices. Above all, these are Croatian “volunteers.” We remember well that two Croatian divisions took part in Germany’s war against the USSR, including in Ukraine. They were notorious for their bloody crimes against civilians.
About a million of our Serb brothers who had fought against the Germans on the Soviet side as partisans were butchered in Croatian concentration camps on the Balkans in 1941-1944. And now hundreds of Croats are again on the side of Bandera followers on Ukrainian territory. Our Serb brothers, like in 1941, are on our side. On march 4 more than 15,000 Serbs took to the streets in Belgrade in a powerful demonstration in support of Russia.
And yet the Croats are not the only Europeans who seek revenge. Other European Union countries also intend to send their “volunteers.” And no wonder. We remember that Europe in that war sent its regular troops and SS legions against the USSR. Fighting on Hitler’s side, along with the Croats, were troops from Austria, Hungary, Romania, Italy, Slovakia, and Finland. Dutch, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, French and Spanish Fascists were members of the SS legions which committed atrocities on the USSR territory, including Ukraine. Today, the descendants of surviving Hitlerites are eager to fight on the side of Nazis and Bandera followers.
Alarming reports are coming in that fighters of Middle East terrorist organizations are being recruited and sent to Ukraine to support local Neo-Nazis. These are people who became notorious for the massacres of civilians in Syria, Libya, Iraq and other Arab countries.
The CPRF resolutely condemns the attempt to internationalize the military conflict in Ukraine and to involve out-and-out Nazis and terrorists from Europe and the Middle East in hostilities. The same fate is in store for them as that of their ancestors from the SS legions during the Great Patriotic War. Russians and Ukrainians are fraternal peoples. Together we set an example to the world of victorious struggle against Nazism. We will do everything to prevent this hideous plague from spreading again over our planet.
Chairman of the CC CPRF