In a speech Friday night full of Nazi comparisons, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksyy turned his words against Russia, claiming that Moscow’s strategy was “more cynical.” Zelensky said there were operational differences between Russian forces today and the Nazis during World War II, but said Moscow’s persistent lies were what separated them. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks from Kyiv, Ukraine on Tuesday. (Press Office of the Ukrainian Presidential Press via AP) NATO PREPARES FOR MASS MILITARY EXERCISES AS RUSSIA CONTINUES INVASION IN UKRAINE “Russian troops manage to be even more cynical than the Nazis 80 years ago,” he said. “At that time, the invaders did not say that it was the residents of Mariupol and the defenders of the city who were bombed and committed suicide.” Russia has said it intends to take full control of the eastern part of the Donbas region as part of a “special military operation”. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly claimed, without substantiation, that his plans are to “seek revenge” on Ukraine and release repressed Russian sympathizers. Zelensky, who was democratically elected and a Jew, has categorically denied the allegations. Smoke rises over the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, Ukraine, in this static image taken from a recent drone video posted on social media. (MUNICIPAL COUNCIL OF MARIUPOL / through REUTERS THIS PICTURE HAS BEEN GIVEN BY THIRD. MANDATORY CREDIT. NO RESOLUTIONS. NO FILES.) “If the Russian invaders succeed in carrying out their plans, at least in part, they will still have enough artillery and aircraft to destroy the whole of Donbass,” he said. “As they destroyed Mariupol. “The city, which was one of the most developed in the region, is just a Russian concentration camp in the middle of the rubble,” he added. Mariupol was one of the cities hardest hit by Russia’s war in Ukraine and remains controversial as Russia lost full control – despite Putin’s claims of victory earlier this month. Congress REVIVES WORLD WAR II-TIME PLAN USED TO DEFEAT HITLER TO DEVELOP AID IN UKRAINE A senior defense official told reporters on Friday that Russia was trying to take control of Donbas by pinching it from the north through Izyum, to Mariupol in the south and opposite the former eastern forts. “But they are running straight into fierce Ukrainian resistance. That is why we believe this progress has been slow and uneven,” he said. “We believe and appreciate that they are behind schedule in what they were trying to achieve in Donbas.” Congress this week revived a World War II-era program that was instrumental in defeating the Nazis by removing some parameters to allow allies to receive more effective military assistance. A Ukrainian BM-21 Grad multiple rocket launcher bombs a Russian military base near Luhansk in the Donbas region on Sunday. (Photo by ANATOLII STEPANOV / AFP via Getty Images) The “lending program” will provide easier defense lending options in Kyiv as well as in “Eastern European countries affected by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.” CLICK HERE TO RECEIVE THE FOX NEWS APPLICATION Zelenskyy supported the move and said: “I am confident that now Lend-Lease will help Ukraine and the whole free world to defeat the ideological successors of the Nazis, who started a war against us on our land. “The Lend-Lease and other programs in support of Ukraine are tangible proof that freedom is still able to defend itself against tyranny,” he added.