PARIS, August 19. /TASS/. European politicians cannot admit publicly that Nazi soldiers are fighting for Ukraine as that would compromise their efforts regarding the provision of military and economic assistance to Kiev, a famous French geopolitician said.

According to Caroline Galacteros, president of the Paris-based think tank Geopragma, helmets with the symbols of the Nazi Waffen-SS units or swastika patches are being used with reference to the Kursk Battle of the WWII era. "To me, this is a reference to World War II, namely to Hitlerite German forces and the links they had with certain Ukrainians at the time <...> against the Soviet Union and against the Soviet Army," she told TASS in an interview.

She lambasted the renewed use of those symbols as "sinister and absolutely hideous." "But Western media can neither recognize nor realize this. Because if they do so, this would cast a shadow over the idea itself and the image of Ukraine as a democracy in danger, etc," Galacteros added. The political scientist noted that ordinary Europeans have been unable or reluctant to realize how serious the use of those symbols by Ukrainians is as they refuse to identify Europe and countries being supported by Europe, such as Ukraine, as something other than "democracy and peace."

"[Torn] between ignorance and the desire to vindicate or place in a positive light everything that Europe does, including support one country against another, they cannot remember the realities of World War II or the role, of course, of the Soviet Union, alongside other allies in defeating Nazi Germany," she lamented. "They only remember the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact or other dark, earlier stages, up to [Operation] Barbarossa. Unfortunately, in Europe and specifically in France, the level of ignorance and denial of historical reality is palpable, the bigger picture has been lost," she concluded.

On August 6, Ukraine launched a major offensive in the borderline Russian region of Kursk. A federal level emergency has been declared, and air raid sirens have repeatedly rung out there. According to the latest information, more than 140 people have been hospitalized with wounds, including 10 children. More than 10,000 evacuees are staying at temporary accommodations.

According to the Russian Defense Ministry, Kiev has lost roughly 3,460 troops, 50 tanks and 45 armored personnel carriers since fighting began in the Kursk area. The operation to wipe out Ukrainian formations continues.