President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said Ukraine "glorifies" Adolf Hitler's SS killing squads and vowed to "eradicate Nazism," as he opened a memorial marking 80 years since the end of the siege of Leningrad.On Saturday, Putin said "the regime in Kyiv glorifies Hitler's accomplices, the SS." And Russia would "do everything possible to suppress and finally eradicate Nazism," he said.

President Vladimir Putin on Saturday said Ukraine “glorifies” Adolf Hitler’s SS killing squads and vowed to “eradicate Nazism,” as he opened a memorial marking 80 years since the end of the siege of Leningrad.

The Russian leader has repeatedly invoked the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in the Second World War to justify his current offensive against Ukraine.

His charge that Ukraine is a fascist state that needs “de-Nazifying” has been debunked as false by independent experts.