The butcher blames the calf

"The leaders of the Kyiv regime," whines Vladimir Putin about the humiliating turnaround in the Russian province of Kursk, "are not only committing a crime against the Russian people, but have in fact embarked upon the path of extermination of the Ukrainians themselves."

It's a nice echo of Adolf Hitler's "prophecy" at the Kroll opera house, when he promised that if "the Jews" caused another world war -- the war he himself was about to launch -- the result would be "the annihilation of the Jewish race in Europe". The butcher is never responsible for the bloodshed. It's always the calf's fault, for having been born a calf.