Zelensky Appeals to U.S. Jewish Leaders Against Vladimir Putin’s ‘Pure Nazism’

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told American Jewish leaders on Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin was guilty of “pure Nazi behavior,” and compared Putin’s rhetoric against the Ukrainian people to that of chief Nazi propagandist Joseph Goebbels, The Times of Israel reported.

During an emotional Zoom call with the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, Zelensky said: “This is just pure Nazism. [Putin] is just destroying the citizens of Ukraine of different nationalities. This is just pure Nazi behavior. I can’t even qualify this in any different manner.”

Putin has claimed that he seeks the “denazification” of Ukraine.

According to the report, Zelensky hoped to convince the umbrella body, which represents 50 American Jewish groups, to call on world leaders to send more weapons to Ukraine.

He noted that as a Jew, it hurt him to see the Russians destroy Jewish sites including the Babi Yar Holocaust memorial and Uman, a site holy to Hasidic Jews.

“For some reason, we have to kneel down and give our weapons away. We have to hoist the Russian flag. We are supposed to say that we don’t want anything, we want to put our hands up,” Zelensky said. “Listen, all of this already happened. In Europe. All of this happened during Nazi times when the German army rolled through Europe and everyone gave the Jewish people away.”

He also invoked 9/11.

“Despite the fact that I’m a Ukrainian citizen with Jewish blood, I was looking at what was happening with the American people and it was as painful to me,” he said. “It was hurting because I thought if America is not protected, if terrorists can just kill people…, if the Twin Towers are falling down in the United States it can happen in Ukraine as well.”

Conference of Presidents vice chairman Malcolm Hoenlein told The Times of Israel that Zelensky expressed his desire for a diplomatic solution that would end the bloodshed, but would not agree to one currently being floated by Putin which would compromise Ukrainian sovereignty.

According to the report, Kyiv’s ambassador to Washington Oksana Markarova joined the conversation and urged the leaders to join Zelensky’s call for a no-fly zone over Ukraine. Until now, NATO has reected the demand, saying that such a drastic measure could result in an all-out war.

Markarova said she wished former Israeli prime minister, Kyiv-born Golda Meir, would have been alive today. “I think she would help a lot in this great fight.”

She compared Russian strikes in Ukraine to the indiscriminate rocket fire Israel ahs sustained in flare-ups with Hamas and Hezbollah, which target civilian population centers.

“The majority of the strikes are from the air, and it’s something that again, you know, all brothers and sisters in Israel are, unfortunately, too familiar with,” Markarova said.