Why Putin's 'de-Nazification of Ukraine' argument makes no sense

In announcing an unprovoked military assault on Ukraine Thursday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he was acting to prevent "genocide" against Russian-speaking people in the sovereign nation and aiming for the “de-Nazification of Ukraine.”

“Its goal is to protect people who have been subjected to bullying and genocide," Putin said in the televised address moments before airstrikes began. "And for this we will strive for the demilitarization and de-Nazification of Ukraine.”

Putin's claim that he wanted to “de-Nazify” Ukraine was striking — and in opposition to reality. For one thing, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who was democratically elected to office in 2019, is Jewish.

Shortly before Putin's address, Zelensky delivered an emotional appeal — in Russian — to the Russian people, pleading with them to stop Putin from launching an unjustified war.

“The Ukraine on your news and Ukraine in real life are two completely different countries — and the main difference is ours is real,” Zelensky said.

"You are told we are Nazis, but how can a people support Nazis that gave more than 8 million lives for the victory over Nazism? How can I be a Nazi? Tell my grandpa, who went through the whole war in the infantry of the Soviet Army and died as a colonel in independent Ukraine."

Ukraine’s official Twitter account posted a cartoon image of Adolf Hitler and Putin gazing lovingly at each other.

Steven Pifer, a former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine, similarly dismissed Putin's claim.

“In his attempt to justify the unjustifiable, #Russia's assault on #Ukraine, Putin referred to a fictional genocide & set goal of 'denazification of Ukraine,' a country that overwhelmingly elected a Jew president,” Pifer tweeted.

There is also no evidence of “genocide” by the Ukrainian army, say U.S. officials, former Ukrainian diplomats and foreign policy experts. (There are far-right elements within Ukraine's national guard, but they are not part of the government.)

While Putin's claims were absurd, they were also not new. When he justified Russia's invasion of Crimea in 2014, he claimed to be protecting ethnic Russians.

In a speech to the United Nations last week, Secretary of State Antony Blinken — whose stepfather was a Holocaust survivor — warned that Russia would make a similar claim now to “manufacture a pretext for its attack.”

“Russia may describe this event as ethnic cleansing or a genocide, making a mockery of a concept that we in this chamber do not take lightly,” Blinken said, “nor do I take it lightly, based on my family history.”

Where are Russian forces surrounding Ukraine? Check out this explainer from Yahoo Immersive to find out.