>Those leading NATO countries are supporting the regime in Kyiv, the government headed by Zelenskyy
Unfortunately, this is a misleading half-truth.
The truth (this is my opinion, but based on literally hundreds of hours of scouring the internet for information) is that:
1) Zelensky was elected because Ukrainians, especially Eastern Ukrainians believed that he would work to bring peace to Donbas;
2) For a year or so after his election, he actually tried to do that. The West disapproved and pressured him to change course, while the far right nationalists basically told him to f@#k off and made public death threats against him. I don't know if you understand Ukrainian, but at least skim these videos https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_KxLuDpP4_w / https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5RRDnF7lKM to get an idea. I think Putin called Ukraine a failed state at that point.
3) After a while, Zelensky basically folded and let foreign backed parties and interests dictate Ukrainian policy. Ultimately leading to where we are today.
So it is not so much that "leading NATO countries are supporting the regime in Kyiv". but rather "the regime in Kyiv is a NATO puppet regime".
>This is very different ... Are you seriously suggesting that Putin explicitly wasn't connecting Zelenskyy to the "far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis" here?
I'm certainly not suggesting that, quite the opposite. He was connecting the two, just not in the way you imply. He quite rightly IMO is saying that Zelensky is carrying out the agenda of far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis. But not "Ukrainians", meaning the people of Ukraine in general.
> And Ku Klux Klan members are American. But you can't interchange the terms willy-nilly. Eg it is wrong to say "Americans advocate the use of violence against people of colour and Jews".
Those leading NATO countries are supporting the regime in Kyiv, the government headed by Zelenskyy, which he also "will never forgive the people of Crimea and Sevastopol for freely making a choice to reunite with Russia." Ergo, by Putin's own words, Zelenskyy == a far right nationalist/neo-Nazi. If I say a rectangle is a four sided shape with all right angles, and describe a shape with four sides and all right angles, I just called it rectangle without actually using that word directly, right?
This is very different from your example with the KKK, as the leaders of the KKK aren't currently the leadership of the US government. If the leadership of the US government was composed of largely KKK members and they started instituting KKK policies, I would agree with that statement. Are you seriously suggesting that Putin explicitly wasn't connecting Zelenskyy to the "far-right nationalists and neo-Nazis" here?