BERLIN, April 12. /TASS/. The Russian Embassy in Germany has criticized a statement by German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius, who reportedly compared Russia's special military operation in Ukraine to the Nazi annexation of Czechoslovakia's territory in 1938.

The statement by Pistorius was reported by several Western news outlets, including Bloomberg.

"If the German news media reports are accurate, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius compared the conflict in Ukraine to Nazi Germany's annexation of Czechoslovakia's territory in 1938," the embassy said in a statement. "We regard the minister's 'parallels' as extremely disappointing. The stated goal of the Nazi regime was, as is well known, a war of annihilation, for example, against the civilian population of our country. In reality, it was genocide. Conversely, one of the goals of the Russian special operation is the eradication of neo-Nazism, which became rampant in Ukraine in recent decades and is openly encouraged by the West."

"Hopefully, the news media have misreported the words of the German defense minister. But in that case, Boris Pistorius will apparently find a way to make things clear," the embassy said.