Ukrainian ambassador to Bulgaria likens Putin to Hitler and Stalin
In a television interview on September 9, Ukraine’s ambassador to Bulgaria Olesya Ilashchuk said that Vladimir Putin and the political leadership of modern Russia are war criminals: “ He has already joined the cohort of tyrants and the biggest criminals of the 20th century – Hitler and Stalin”.
Ilashchuk was responding to a question from Nova Televizia, as to what she would say to those people in Bulgaria who still support Putin and his policies, and to Putin himself.
“Supporting them and their aggressive imperial policies is a form of complicity in crimes against humanity,” Ilashchuk said.
“It is support for destabilisation, support for tyranny and aid to evil. Sooner or later, evil will be punished. As it was after the Second World War,” she said.
“I don’t think it is possible to negotiate or have a discussion with Putin now. Because his tools are extortion, terror, killing innocent people.”
Ilashchuk said that Putin had already joined “the cohort of tyrants and the biggest criminals of the 20th century – Hitler and Stalin”
“Like any person who seeks peace and justice, I have only one wish – to see Putin in The Hague as soon as possible.”
Asked how and when do she thought Russia’s war in Ukraine would end, Ilashchuk said that there was a certain wisdom that a bad peace is better than a good war, “but this formula does not work when a country has already started a war and is waging it against a neighbouring country”.
“One cannot talk about peace with an aggressor who has come to your land to destroy and kill you, your relatives, friends and neighbors. Today, Ukrainians are not at war, they are defending themselves and their country.
“Peace in Ukraine can be restored within a day, as soon as Russia withdraws its troops from Ukraine’s borders, recognized in 1991. Russia must return to respecting international norms, agreements and rules. Otherwise, Russian aggression opens the way to the barbarism of the Middle Age,” Ilashchuk said.
She said that in the past few months, the political dialogue between Ukraine and Bulgaria had
significantly intensified.
“The development of sectoral intergovernmental cooperation continues. In addition to the sphere of defence and issues of the construction of the ‘solidarity’ corridors for transporting Ukrainian grain, the sphere of ecology, renewable energy, and the implementation of joint production projects are of particular interest,” Ilashchuk said.
“We are sincerely grateful to the government of Bulgaria and the Bulgarian people for the political support of Ukraine in the international arena, for the support of the International Crimean Platform, the support for the G-7 Declaration on security guarantees for Ukraine.
“But separately, I want to thank for the military-technical assistance provided to Ukraine, for the principled position of the National Assembly of Bulgaria and for the relevant decisions of the government.”
Ilashchuk also thanked “every citizen of Bulgaria who found an opportunity to give their personal contribution in support of the Ukrainians in this incredibly difficult moment”.
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