Surrender and Denazification: Russia Must Go Through German Experience of May 1945

Ukraine and its Western partners must find a way to ensure that Russia will change its aggressive intentions and warlike approach to foreign policy after Ukraine's victory, Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Andriy Melnyk said speaking during the United News telethon.

According to the official, the Ukrainian Formula of Peace is the first step towards preparing the post-war world order. However, in unison with this, Ukrainians have to think of the way in which Russia would be presented and perceived around the world, and to what extent it would be able to influence the world order in future.

"Our Western partners say: here you have reached the borders (1991 – ed.), this is realistic. No-one there excludes the likelihood of such a scenario and no-one denies that our Armed Forces are capable of doing that," Melnyk said.

"But what's next? My answer is simple: Russia must experience what the Germans went through in May 1945. And I don't mean only an unconditional surrender without negotiations… No-one negotiated with Hitler, although he tried to do so… That's not enough. But what happened next? There was a so-called denazification process – which is what the Russians wanted to conduct here," he added.

Melnyk noted that it is unlikely that Ukraine will occupy Russia. According to him, the main question is how to make society in Russia "stop thinking of ways to annihilate a neighboring country."  

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"Here we need to think with our partners - the Americans, the Germans, the British -  how to make a new, big war impossible. And these are the issues that concern us," the Deputy Minister stressed.