“We didn’t think that he would be the Hitler of the 21st century and I think he is putting himself into that space.”
Tánaiste Leo Varadkar has compared Russian President Vladimir Putin to Adolf Hitler following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier in the week.
Speaking on Friday evening on RTÉ’s Drivetime, The Tánaiste said what is taking place in Ukraine currently is an “atrocity” and that he believes it resembles “what happened to Czechoslovakia in 1939”.
“We knew that Putin was a bad man,” he told the programme.
“We’ve known that for a long time now but we didn’t think that he would be the Hitler of the 21st century.”
“And I think he is putting himself into that space.”
Varadkar also said that the Irish Government “fully supports Ukraine” and its right to democracy and to join the European Union or NATO if it wishes to do so.
“I want to condemn the Russian Federation’s aggression towards Ukraine,” he stated.
“We’ll support Ukraine in any way can short of military action.
“We want wider sanctions [against Russia] than has been agreed already by the European Union.
“For example, seizing the personal assets of Putin and [Russian Foreign Minister Sergei] Lavrov and members of the Russian Security Council… doing things that will damage their economy, damage the support within Russia and among the Russian elite for the current Government in Russia.
“The kind of things that might force them to the table and therefore, potentially, enable a solution or a political solution down the line.”
Following Varadkar’s comments, it has been reported that EU states have agreed to freeze any European assets of Putin and Lavrov.
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