On Thursday, while Ursula von der Leyen was visiting Kyiv, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attacked her and said that the West wanted to permanently humiliate Moscow.
“Ursula von der Leyen… said that the outcome of the war should be the defeat of Russia, the kind of defeat that for decades, for many decades, Russia cannot restore its economy,” Lavrov said in comments aired on Russian state television.
“Is this not racism, not Nazism — not an attempt to solve ‘the Russian question'” Lavrov added, evoking Russia’s victory against Nazi Germany in World War II.
A day ahead of a summit between the EU and Ukraine in the strife-torn nation, the head of the European Commission announced she had arrived in Kyiv with a delegation of commissioners and the bloc’s top diplomat early on Thursday.
Von der Leyen has recently asserted that Europe must triumph in the face of Russian aggression and that the EU’s economy is now facing a “decade of decline” as a result of previously unheard-of sanctions.
After the West decided to send heavy tanks to Ukraine last week, the French foreign ministry denied that France or its partners were at war with Russia.
“The crucial part is we do it together and we do not do the blame game in Europe because we are fighting a war against Russia and not against each other,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on January 25.
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, routinely compares the conflict against Nazi Germany to what he terms Moscow’s “special military operation” in Ukraine.
In February of last year, he declared war on Ukraine with the stated intention of “de-Nazifying” the nation.
