President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday addressed the Bundestag (parliament) of Germany via video link. His speech was an appeal to the worst traditions of German history.
Eighty years after Germany’s war of extermination against the Soviet Union that claimed the lives of 27 million of its inhabitants, he accused Germany of not being aggressive enough against Russia. In this country, the memories of the terror of the Nazi Wehrmacht (army) are still extremely clear.
By clinging to the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea for so long, refusing preventive sanctions against Russia and refusing to accept Ukraine into NATO, Germany contributed to the isolation of its country and supplies to Russia, Zelensky accused before the assembled parliamentarians. which, he said, lacked “strength” and “leadership”.
He referred to Cold War anti-communism, accusing his audience of hiding behind a wall: “a wall in the middle of Europe, between freedom and unfreedom.” He quoted US President Ronald Reagan yelling at the Berlin Wall, “Tear down this wall!” He urged Chancellor Olaf Scholz: “Tear down this wall. Give Germany the leadership it deserves.”
Zelensky has demanded a full trade embargo on Russia and NATO’s more direct involvement in the hostilities, even if that means the risk of World War III.
The day before, he already demanded the establishment of a no-fly zone over Ukraine in a video message to the US Congress. He repeated this request before the Bundestag. According to him, Germany should help ensure the security of the Ukrainian skies and prevent Russian air attacks.
Military experts agree that establishing a no-fly zone would be tantamount to NATO officially entering the war. Former Inspector General of the Bundeswehr and Chairman of the NATO Military Committee Harald Kujat called the request irresponsible.
“In addition to the fact that the UN does not have a mandate for no-fly zones, a no-fly zone would be tantamount to a declaration of war on Russia,” he said. “In order to prevent the downing of NATO fighters, Russian air defense systems must first be neutralized. Even if it succeeded, dogfights would follow. NATO and Russia will be at war with each other and on the brink of nuclear war.”
Nevertheless, demand is gaining momentum in the US and Europe.
In the Bundestag, Zelensky was not even afraid to refer to the victims of Nazi terror in his defense. “I speak to you on behalf of older Ukrainians, many of whom survived the Second World War, managed to escape during the occupation 80 years ago. Of those who survived at Babi Yar,” he said.
On September 29 and 30, 1941, in the gorge of Babi Yar, the Wehrmacht shot 34 thousand Kiev Jews – men, women and children – in 36 hours. The victims had to lie face down on the corpses of people who had already been killed before they themselves were killed. This massacre was part of a strategy to create “Lebensraum” (“living space”) for German settlers in the East. This was a prelude to the systematic murder of millions of Jews, Communists and Red Army soldiers by the Nazis.
If Zelenskiy had brought up these crimes against humanity to ask the German government to seek an immediate ceasefire, that would have been understandable. Instead, he asks to add fuel to the fire and show “leadership”.
The Bundestag thanked him with a standing ovation. From the Left Party to the Alternative for Germany (AfD), the far-right party, which has a lot of neo-Nazis, all the deputies stood up. Even longtime AfD leader Alexander Gauland, who calls Hitler and the Nazis “birdshit” for a thousand years of glorious German history, was delighted.
For Germany’s ruling elites, the war in Ukraine serves as a welcome opportunity to realize the rearmament and great power plans they have long planned. In February 2014, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, then Foreign Minister and now President of Germany, became directly involved in the right-wing coup that sowed the seeds of the current war. In particular, he met in Kyiv with the leader of the far-right Svoboda party Oleg Tyagnibok. In the same month, the German government announced “an end to military restraint” and its intention to once again play a role in world politics commensurate with Germany’s economic weight.
This return to militarism is accompanied by a revision of German history. Der Spiegelpublished the article “The Question of Guilt Divides Historians Today”. Humboldt University historian Jörg Baberowski confirms that Hitler was not violent and defends Nazi apologist Ernst Nolte, who described Nazism as an understandable reaction to Bolshevism.
“The revival of German militarism requires a new interpretation of history that simplifies the crimes of the Nazi period,” the Socialist Gleiheitsparta (SGP) and its youth organization IYSSE wrote at the time. Because they criticized these and other similar statements by Baberowski and opposed the return of German militarism and fascism, they were viciously attacked by the university administration, the media and all parties and were listed as “unconstitutional” organizations by the Office for the Protection of the Constitution. .
If Zelensky is now also calling on Germany to return to its militaristic traditions and play a “leading role”, this is not a misunderstanding. Ukrainian nationalists such as Stepan Bandera, who collaborated with the Nazi Wehrmacht during World War II and participated in its massacres, are highly regarded in Ukraine. They are even publicly honored with monuments and commemorations.
Ukrainian Ambassador Andriy Melnyk, who was sitting on the podium of the Bundestag during Zelensky’s speech, publicly defended the Azov battalion, which consists of right-wing extremists and wears Nazi symbols on their uniforms, the day before. “Please stop demonizing the Azov Battalion and playing propaganda – now also in the midst of Russia’s war of extermination,” he tweeted. “These brave fighters are defending their homeland, especially the besieged city of Mariupol. Leave them.”
Melnyk’s protest was directed against the article Die Zeitwho described far-right troops as “military-trained neo-Nazis with combat experience armed with bazookas and assault rifles” who are “unlikely to submit to a simply democratically elected president again” after the conflict ends.
The Kiev government’s sponsorship of fascist groups does not justify a reactionary Russian military attack. But it exposes the lie that the war is for democracy and freedom and shows that the main responsibility for the war and the suffering of the Ukrainian people lies with the NATO powers.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, these powers sought to eliminate Russia as a geostrategic rival and gain access to its vast natural resources and territory. To defend their position, they waged wars in Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria in violation of international law and expanded NATO further east.
In Ukraine, economically and culturally closely linked to Russia, NATO forces are deliberately promoting right-wing nationalists and neo-Nazis. After the right-wing coup in 2014, which they supported and encouraged, they systematically rearmed the country, invested billions of dollars in weapons and trained its army.
The current conflict is a proxy war between Russia and NATO, waged at the expense of the Ukrainian people and funded by NATO. The recently adopted US budget for Ukraine includes $14 billion, twice its own military budget. $550 million has already been spent since the start of the war, and President Biden has already committed another $800 million. Other NATO members are also flooding the country with military aid and weapons.
For the German government, war is an opportunity to launch the biggest military campaign since Hitler. The risk that the war will get out of control and lead to World War III is increasing every day. It can only be stopped by the offensive of the working class, which unites the workers of all countries in the struggle against capitalism.
(Article published in English on March 19, 2022)