A Russian State Duma deputy declared that destroying up to half of Ukraine's population is acceptable to eradicate what he called "Nazism," the Moscow Times reported. MP Alexei Zhuravlyov made the remarks in a conversation with a blogger.
As Moscow's all-out war against Ukraine continues, Zhuravlyov's words spell out, in plain terms, the extermination agenda behind Russia's repeated "denazification" claims — the Kremlin accuses Ukrainians of Nazism while its own officials voice openly Nazi-style calls to wipe out a neighboring nation.
"Even fifty percent must be destroyed"
Zhuravlyov spoke in a YouTube interview. When asked how many "Nazis" there are in Ukraine now. Zhuravlyov claimed the figure used to be 2% but may now stand at 20–30%. Asked whether all of them should be destroyed, the deputy answered: "Preferably."
"All Nazis must be destroyed. All of them must be. You understand, if it's fifty—even fifty percent must be destroyed... So that this contagion is not there, so that no one threatens us," Zhuravlyov stated.
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The deputy claimed he saw "with his own eyes" how "these creatures come and hang everyone—Russians, non-Russians, regardless of your views." He offered no evidence. He insisted that "if this contagion is not uprooted from there, it will remain forever."
Kill criterion: a weapon in hand
Zhuravlyov allowed that some Ukrainians might switch sides—"change their views.". Those who refuse, he said, "must be destroyed, of course." Asked how to tell a "fascist" from a "non-fascist," the parliamentarian named the main criterion—defending their land with a weapon.
"If he has an assault rifle—yes, he must be destroyed. Why tell him apart? See him—kill him," he stated.
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Expulsion or death for those who won't recant
To back his claim that Ukrainians would quickly change their position, Zhuravlyov cited a phrase he attributed to a—possibly non-existent—"native Ukrainian":
"Lviv has never yet met a single army in the world without bread and salt."
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He then repeated that those who refuse to change their views should be killed or deported.
"If you don't want to switch sides—you must be either expelled from there or destroyed," he said.
A script written in 2022
Zhuravlyov's formula—re-educate some, expel or kill the rest—repeats the program Russian state media laid out at the start of the full-scale invasion. In April 2022, the Kremlin-controlled agency RIA Novosti published a manifesto declaring that "denazification will inevitably be de-Ukrainization," a text Yale historian Timothy Snyder called a "genocide handbook." In that document, as in the deputy's interview, "Nazi" simply means Ukrainian.
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