DISINFO: Kyiv can’t win because Ukrainians and Russians are one Soviet people
SUMMARY
The Russians and the Ukrainians are the same Soviet people. Kyiv’s authorities cannot win the war because they are fighting their own people rather than the Russians. Their people rejected Kyiv’s authority in Crimea, Kherson and in Donbas. Odesa, Mykolayiv and Kyiv will soon do the same because they do not want to be siding with the defeated Nazis.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring disinformation narrative from pro-Kremlin outlets that attempts to legitimise illegal temporary annexations of Ukrainian territories, and denies Ukraine's historical statehood. This claim was made in the context of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine and Russia, which were part of the former Soviet Union from 1922 until 1991, are now fully independent states. Although Ukrainians and Russians are two Slavic peoples with similar languages, they are different nations with their own history, culture, and mentality. Russia recognized the independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine within the borders of 1991, and vice versa.
Ukraine’s history dates back to the times of early Slavic tribes and principalities in the 9th to 13th centuries in and around Kyiv. Turbulent ages followed, until the Ukrainian People’s Republic (aka the Ukrainian National Republic) was proclaimed in 1918 in the wake of the collapse of the Russian Empire. Communist Russia took control of Ukraine from 1919-1920 and established a Bolshevik regime there. Moscow performed aggressive anti-Ukrainian policies, exterminating the population during famines.
Present-day Ukraine has been on the world map since 1991, when the Soviet Union disintegrated. It has elected six presidents since then and changed parties in government several times, which illustrates political diversity and democratic dynamics.
In violation of international law, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, illegally annexing the peninsula of Crimea and instigating a separatist revolt in some parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk Regions. On 24 February 2022, Russia launched an unprovoked and unjustified full-scale aggression against Ukraine, which the European Union condemns in the strongest possible terms.
Read similar disinformation cases claiming that Ukraine is not a real state because it has no single territory, single language, single economy and single population, that Ukraine is an artificial construct and its "disintegration" will continue if it remains hostile to Russia, and that There is no "Ukraine", only illegal regime in the Kyiv territory.