Moscow (AFP) - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday repeated a claim that neo-Nazis were committing crimes in Ukraine -- an allegation Moscow has used to justify its military intervention -- as the world marked Holocaust Remembrance Day.
"Forgetting the lessons of history leads to the repetition of terrible tragedies," Putin said.
"This is evidenced by the crimes against civilians, ethnic cleansing and punitive actions organised by neo-Nazis in Ukraine.It is against that evil that our soldiers are bravely fighting," he said.
Supporters of Putin's military operation allege Ukraine's treatment of Russian speakers in the country is comparable with the actions of Nazi Germany.
One of the goals of the operation was the "de-Nazification" of Ukraine, Putin said, when he announced nearly one year ago he had ordered Russian troops towards Kyiv.
The claims have been contested by the Ukrainian government and the country's Jewish community.
The Soviet Union's victory over Hitler's army -- long a symbol of patriotic pride for Russians -- has taken centre stage since the beginning of the military intervention.
Putin said, "Attempts to revise the contributions of our country to the Great Victory (against Hitler) actually equate to justifying the crimes of Nazism and open the way for the revival of its deadly ideology."
Friday is the 78th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp built by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland -- a date that has become Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Auschwitz museum did not invite Russian representatives to the ceremony marking the day the Soviet Red Army liberated the Nazi camp because of the offensive in Ukraine.
"Russia will need an extremely long time and very deep self-examination after this conflict in order to return to gatherings of the civilised world," Piotr Sawicki, a spokesman for the museum at the site of the former camp, told AFP.
Russia's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar told AFP, "For us, this is clearly a humiliation because we perfectly know and remember the role of the Red Army in the liberation of Auschwitz and in the victory over Nazism."
"These political games have no place on Holocaust day," Lazar added.
'New camps'
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki used the occasion of Holocaust Remembrance Day to accuse Putin of building "new camps" while waging war against Ukraine.
"On the anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi German death camp Auschwitz-Birkenau, let us remember that to the east Putin is building new camps," Morawiecki said on Facebook.
"Solidarity and consistent support for Ukraine are effective ways to ensure that history does not come full circle," he added.
Morawiecki did not elaborate on his accusation against Russia, though it echoed a claim made by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last year.
In an October address, Zelensky spoke of Olenivka, "a concentration camp where our prisoners are kept".
UN investigators also said last year they had documented more than 400 arbitrary detentions and enforced disappearances by Russian forces in Ukraine.
French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna condemned Putin's remarks as "appalling, shocking", speaking during a visit to Romania.
"It is an unworthy provocation on a day like today," she added.
