DailyMail: The awful truth about Vladimir Putin’s mother and how her brush with the most gruesome of deaths made him so ‘barbaric’ … no, better: how Ukrainian Hiwis took part in the barbaric WWII Blockade of Leningrad.

The DailyMail puts up a wonderful propaganda piece on top of its headlines. DailyMail, like so many other news outlets, tries to paint a psychological image of Vladimir Putin. And tries to prove him being “barbaric”, a bad guy. For this, DailyMail revives the horrors of the German blockade of Leningrad (today St.Peterburg). DailyMail tries to explain that because of the barbaric sufferings the Germans inflicted on Leningrad, and also on his mother (before Putin even was born, nb he was born in 1952), Putin became a bad guy. His mother almost starved to death in 1943, he lost his brother in the Blockade (a fact that DailyMail omits). The Blockade of Leningrad started in 1941 and ended in January 1944 when the German troops had to retreat from Russia, but left 1.5 million deaths just only in Leningrad, an apocalyptic horror of German war crimes during WWII, but hardly comparable to the 60 million deaths resulting from the German invasion. The Blockade is enshrined in Russian history, minds and psychosis forever and will always define the Russian-German relationship. It is a symbol of a foreign power aggressing and occupying Russia (as centuries before the Mongols) and it is even more a reminder for Russia to make everything possible that there will never be a risk of aggression or occupation again. This is probably the state of mind of all Russians today, not only Putin’s, when Russia is fighting the NATO eastward expansion.
What the DailyMail omits is the spicy, but very important information that 20% of the German Wehrmacht that blockaded Leningrad were Hiwis (“Willing to Help”, no, not PM Starmer’s today’s “Coalition of the Willing”, but Nazis’ willing). Hiwis were recruited by the Nazis mainly in Ukraine, some in the baltic countries and were amassed in special units of the Wehrmacht. The number of Ukrainian Hiwis over WWII was 1 million.
As such, already a huge Ukrainian army was attacking and invading Russia during WWII as proxys and collaborators of the Nazis. The DailyMail shall also remind that Ukrainian Hiwis were responsible for many other gruesome crimes, against Poles, Jews and, of course Russians, during WWII. The Ukrainian Hiwis, all Nazis and extreme-Russia haters, were important actors in the horrors of German occupation of Russia, as they were also motivated guards of Concentration Camps, members of the local police and members of Ukrainian SS battalions.
Eg. the Galicia Division was a World War II infantry division of the Waffen-SS, the military wing of the German Nazi Party, made up predominantly of volunteers with Ukrainian ethnic background from the area of Galicia. Well to remember is that also Finland took part in the Blockade, from the North, and also made up SS contingents.
Just to remind the DailyMail that Russians (and Jews, Poles and many others) remember how Ukrainians were terrible proxys of the Nazis in Eastern Europe during WWII and how all these Eastern European people were suffering under the Ukrainian nationalism (which some lunatics declare today as freedom fight). After the Germans, Ukrainians were the most barbaric during the Blockade of Leningrad, as they were the most barbaric, after the Germans, during all the occupation of Eastern Europe during WWII. It is seemingly a repetition of history that the descendants of those WWII Ukrainians are now the proxys of the previous Obama/Biden regime and its allies. Yes, Ukrainians can be used to march against Russia, till the last Ukrainian. A historic fact that Putin and all Russians remember well. A historic fact that shall never repeat itself. Imagine what Russians must feel when German tanks, driven by Ukrainians, are today attacking Russia – again. It is to be thankful to Putin and his wise perspective not to react ferociously and crush all Ukraine at once, even with conventional fire power, but allowing instead for a slow progressive change of Ukrainian attitude. Donald Trump understood Putin’s intention not to crush Ukraine. Some European leaders who today try to replace the Obama/Biden gang as proxy masters of Ukraine, need to be made aware of the colossal historic context. It would help to make peace immediately.