Hitler didn’t quit in 1938 and Putin won’t stop at Ukraine, Lithuanian leader warns

PARIS — There's a historical parallel between Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda warned on Wednesday.

“Just as Czechoslovakia did not satisfy Hitler, Ukraine would not satisfy Putin," Nausėda said, speaking at the Paris Defense and Strategy Forum in the French capital. "Neither would the Baltic states or Poland. None of the European states are safe at the moment.

"Russia will not stop. It can only be stopped," he added.

In 1938, Hitler annexed part of Czechoslovakia to Germany as his military ambitions grew, culminating in the outbreak of World War II. Putin, meanwhile, has waged war on Ukraine since 2014, illegally annexing the Crimean peninsula and then attempting to capture swathes of Ukrainian territory during a full-scale invasion that began in 2022.

Nausėda's comments came as Putin claimed — yet again— that the Kremlin is “ready” for nuclear war with the West.

The Lithuanian president told the audience it would be a “fundamental mistake” to believe that Moscow can be “appeased” by conceding territory.

He is not alone in his warnings.

Top officials from Western countries have been ringing alarm bells over Putin's imperialist ambitions, which they fear might stretch beyond Ukraine. Warsaw's mayor on Wednesday announced a new plan to allocate 117 million zlotys (€27 million) to build bomb shelters and other security measures in the next two to three years.

Nausėda urged leaders to take the threat of Russian expansion seriously and “stop drawing red lines for ourselves.” He praised French President Emmanuel Macron's controversial remarks that Western troops on the ground in Ukraine should not be "ruled out."

"Together we are strong — the combined economy of Western countries is more than 20 times bigger than that of Russia," Nausėda said.

The West must continue to supply equipment and weapons to Ukraine, while allies need to boost their defense spending, the Lithuanian president told the audience.

He welcomed the Commission’s European Defence Industrial Strategy, which aims to boost the bloc's defense companies, adding that the European Investment Bank should widen its mandate to be able to fund weapons manufacturers.