It’s ironic that Vladimir Putin, the Russian President, is calling the leaders and people in Ukraine who oppose him Nazis. Putin is following the playbook that Adolf Hitler used when he tested the leaders in Europe when he annexed Austria.

Hitler moved his forces into Austria on March 12, 1938 in the Anschluss essentially without much opposition from Austria or European leaders. After all, Hitler was an Austrian, and he thought they should be one country.

Remember when Putin in 2014 took over

the Crimea because that part of Ukraine was once part of the Soviet Union, and Putin decided it needed to be part of Russia again? Again, there was little opposition from European leaders or the United States. Remember when Congress voted to send defensive weapons to Ukraine so it could defend itself, and President Obama refused to do that?

On September 29-30, 1938 Hitler met in Munich with British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain to negotiate over the Sudetenland, a part of Czechoslovakia, which had a large German-speaking population. Hitler said that would be the end of his territorial demands. And Neville Chamberlain returned to London and proclaimed “Peace in our times”.

Remember how Putin has been saying for months that the Donbas area of Ukraine should be returned to Russia because it has a large number of Russian-speaking people, and how he has been supplying those people with military equipment and stationing Russian troops and equipment on the border?

On September 1, 1939, Hitler sent his tanks and military forces into Poland and started World War II in Europe. By this time, England and France had promised to come to Poland’s aid because the Polish people and government were not equipped to defend their country.

Putin followed Hitler’s plan by invading Ukraine on February 21st. Putin’s big mistake was thinking that the U.S., European leaders and others would be all talk and that the Ukrainian people would not fight for their country. How wrong Putin was, and we’re seeing that on TV every day. All the while China sits back and watches and gages whether or not to make a move on Taiwan.

We all need to pray for Ukraine and its people to succeed in this fight, and for Putin to be put in his place.

JoAnn Van Tassel

Orion Twp.