Ukraine paper says Germany 'unchanged since Third Reich'
(KIEV) - A Ukrainian daily close to the party of President Viktor Yanukovych Friday published a startling editorial accusing Germany of not changing since the Third Reich and still trying to dictate its rule.
The unashamedly anti-German article in the national daily Segodnya -- owned by tycoon and close Yanukovych ally Rinat Akhmetov -- comes amid a huge crisis in Berlin-Kiev ties ahead of Ukraine's hosting of the Euro 2012 football tournament.
Germany has led European criticism of Ukraine's treatment of jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko and has not ruled out boycotting the matches taking place in Ukraine.
"Germany again wants to dictate its will over Europe," said the editorial in Segodnya.
"They have taken off their masks and it really is the case that the Berlin of 2012 is in no way different from the Berlin of the 1940s.
"Germany has not changed in the past 70 years and we are not just talking about the geopolitical ambitions of (Chancellor Angela) Merkel and (Foreign Minister Guido) Westerwelle."
The paper is a staunch supporter of the Regions Party of Yanukovych, which has bitterly criticised Germany for pressuring Ukraine and politicising the Euro football.
The top-selling newspaper clearly compared the actions of modern Germany to those of Nazi Germany under Adolf Hitler, which invaded and occupied much of modern Ukraine's territory in World War II.
"In 1941, the German administration forced Ukrainian girls, naked, into goods wagons bound for Germany. In the 21st century, German customs officials strip Ukrainian workers naked and take all their things away," it charged.
"Only the methods have changed."
"Then they destroyed countries with armies and now they ruin their economy. The calls for a boycott are a call to leave hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians without work."
The article added: "1945 taught them nothing."
"Germany wants to establish its rules and dictate its will on today's Ukraine. Even the European Union counts for nothing if we are to be seen as subhumans, like in the New Europe of Hitler."
"We did not vote for independence (from the Soviet Union) in 1991 to be under Merkel's heel."
Ukraine had hoped that Euro 2012 -- which it is co-hosting with Poland -- would be a showpiece for the country but analysts have said the event risks becoming a fiasco as the government's image goes from bad to worse.
Yanukovich calling the kettle black..