DISINFO: The West is trying to tear Ukraine away from its roots through independence
SUMMARY
Ukraine has become a springboard for modern processes of historical revisionism, and the West has tied its independence to the rejection of its roots.
Ukraine has become a territory of collision of these two processes, when Western countries began to forcibly rewrite history and rapidly introduce a new neocolonial ideology into everyday life.
For Ukraine, independence and sovereignty turned out to be linked to the Western neocolonial agenda, within the framework of which Ukrainians needed to rewrite their history and reject their common past with Russia.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative denying Ukraine’s statehood and Ukrainian national identity and attempting to justify the unprovoked full-scale military aggression of the country.
This manipulation is consistent with the recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative about the Russian world-- a pseudohistorical doctrine claiming that the territories roughly covering the former Soviet Union constitute modern Russia's "sphere of influence."
Claims that Ukraine does not exist as a state and that Ukrainians do not truly exist either are among the principal Ukraine-related disinformation narratives that pro-Kremlin outlets have peddled for years to legitimise Moscow's campaign of annihilation of the Ukrainian state and identity.
Ukrainians and Russians are two distinct people, despite multiple attempts of the Kremlin to deny it. Ukraine is a well-defined nation-state with a long history, literature, and identity, despite foreign rule for long periods. Ukrainians and Russians belong to the Slavs ethnolinguistic group, but they are not a single nation. The "all-Russian big nation" is an imperial Russian and Russian revanchist ideology that is a favoured pro-Kremlin narrative aimed at weakening the national identity of Ukrainians, as well as undermining state sovereignty. Read more in our article One Nation Myth.
Ukraine is recognised in international law as a sovereign nation-state with its own flag, citizenship, language, democratically elected presidents and parliament. In violation of international law, Russia invaded Ukraine in 2014, illegally annexing the Crimean peninsula 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 invasion of Ukraine.
Read also related cases: Ukraine’s statehood is legal nonsense, or Russia is defending territories that have been part of it for centuries, or Russians and Ukrainians are one people, or Russians and Ukrainians are one people, or Russians (Great Russians) and Ukrainians (Little Russians) are one people, or Ukrainians and Russians are one people, or Ukrainians and Russians are practically one people; The term “Ukraine” is the legacy of the Polish colonialism; The West is trying to tear off a piece of Russia by military means; Ukraine's statehood is a myth, its territory belongs to Russia; Ukraine was created from parts of Russia; There has never been a historical Ukraine; It was Lenin who created Ukraine.