Hillary Clinton has compared Russia's entrance into the Ukraine to what Adolf Hitler did in Nazi Germany, the Long Beach Press Telegram reported.
Russian president Vladimir Putin sent forces into Ukraine's Crimea peninsula last week. The invasion came after a democratic government was recently installed following months of protest against the ousted president, Viktor Yanukovych, who chose to support Russia instead of the European Union.
The president said the move was necessary in order to protect Ukrainian citizens who are ethnically Russian, the Press Telegram reported. Yet so far there have been no reports of ethnic Russians being attacked.
The former secretary of state said the invasion is similar to when Hitler invaded Europe.
"Now if this sounds familiar, it's what Hitler did back in the '30s," Clinton said Tuesday night at a California event for the Boys & Girls Club of Long Beach, according to the Press Telegram.
"All the Germans that were...the ethnic Germans, the Germans by ancestry who were in places like Czechoslovakia and Romania and other places, Hitler kept saying they're not being treated right. 'I must go and protect my people,' and that's what's gotten everybody so nervous," Clinton said.
Putin, according to Clinton, "believes his mission is to restore Russian greatness.
"When he looks at Ukraine, he sees a place that he believes is by its very nature part of Mother Russia."
Clinton said the issue between Russia and Ukraine is tricky, and will require skillful diplomacy to resolve.
"Everybody is hoping that there will be a negotiation but a negotiation that respects Ukraine and doesn't ratify a reoccupation by Russia of Crimea," Clinton said, the Press Telegram reported. "So it's a real nail-biter, right now, but nobody wants to up the rhetoric. Everybody wants to cool it in order to find a diplomatic solution and that's what we should be trying to do."
Though she has not announced it, Clinton is rumored to be a possible Democratic candidate for the 2016 presidency.
