DISINFO: Valery Zaluzhny's memoir 'My War' imitates Adolf Hitler’s 'Mein Kampf'
SUMMARY
Valery Zaluzhny wrote the book My War imitating Adolf Hitler. The former Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine presented his memoir “My War” – Internet users immediately noticed an allusion to Hitler’s Mein Kampf.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative claiming that Ukraine is a Nazi and a puppet state. This claim was made in the context of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
On 20 December 2024, Valery Zaluzhny, the former Head of the Ukrainian General Staff, presented his memoir "My War". The first book covers his life from childhood to the outbreak of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. According to Zaluzhny, "this book is about my war. First, the war with my own fears that prevent me from doing anything. Second, the war with the people who prevent you from achieving your goals. And finally, the war against circumstances that become obstacles in life".
The claim that this memoir is somehow connected to Adolf Hitler is ungrounded.
This myth has actively been used by pro-Kremlin outlets since Russia’s 2014 attack on Ukraine and the illegal annexation of Crimea. Ukraine is a democratic country with a Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose own family suffered under the Holocaust. While some far-right groups exist in Ukraine, they do not represent the government or the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Labelling Russia’s adversaries as Nazis is a widespread pro-Kremlin disinformation technique, and has been used by Russia to justify the invasion of Ukraine by portraying it as a “denazification operation”.
Russia invested years in preparing the information landscape before initiating military action, with the ‘Nazi Ukraine’ narrative serving as a central element of its disinformation strategy. Pro-Kremlin narratives also frequently allege a resurgence of Nazism in Western nations. Learn more about the reasons behind the Kremlin’s obsession with Nazism in the EUvsDisinfo analysis titled Thirteen myths about Russia’s war against Ukraine exposed (myth 13).
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Ukrainian Nazis kill civilians, that Ukrainian neo-Nazis offer human sacrifices to pagan gods, and that EU and NATO are backing neo-Nazi values in Ukraine.