The interview on Sky News was ended after Dmitry Polyansky showed an image of a Nazi symbol posted by Ukraine’s leader
A screenshot from Sky News.
Dmitry Polyansky, the deputy head of Russia’s mission to the UN, said the UK’s Sky News abruptly ended an interview with him as soon as he showed a photo with a Nazi symbol that was posted by the Ukrainian president on WWII Victory Day.
“The host’s response? He quickly wound up the talk, muttering that our time, as it turned out, was up suddenly, and that Sky News could not verify this information,” the diplomat wrote on Telegram on Monday.
“So much for the freedom of speech in the West… they don’t need the truth! From now on, they’ll think a hundred times before inviting Russian diplomats to a live show!”
In an interview with Sky News, Polyansky was asked whether he agreed that Russian troops in Ukraine were “dishonoring their grandfathers who fought the Nazis,” and that their actions were “mirroring fascism.”
Polyansky called the assertion “blasphemous.” He added that it was “absolutely disastrous and shameless what the UK is doing right now, forgetting everything that we were fighting [for].”
The diplomat then pulled out a tablet and showed a screenshot of a since-deleted social media post by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. On Victory Day, Zelensky published a photo of a Ukrainian fighter with a skull head patch that was worn by an elite German SS unit during the war.
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When the host tried to interject, Polyansky said: “Don’t interrupt me, sir, please.”
“Do you know that this ‘Totenkopf’ division was responsible for the murder of 100 Britons in France in the beginning of the Second World War?” Polyansky continued. “So, it means that now the UK is covering Ukrainian authorities, which display Nazi symbols during the Victory Day. And these Nazi symbols were used by the same regiments that killed British people. Isn’t that a little bit strange?”
The host then said they had run out of time and ended the interview. He added that the network could not independently verify Polyansky’s claims.
The image of a fighter with the skull head patch was also posted by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry on Twitter and later removed.
Moscow previously said it had captured fighters with Nazi tattoos and insignia during its military campaign in Ukraine. According to multiple reports, Ukraine’s Azov Battalion contains fighters with openly neo-Nazi views.
