DISINFO: Ukrainians are historically Russians and need protection against western imperialism

DISINFORMATION CASE DETAILS

DISINFO: Ukrainians are historically Russians and need protection against western imperialism

SUMMARY

Ukrainians asked Russia for assistance against Western Imperialism, Russia has no choice but to help them because Ukrainian are historically Russians.

There is no imperial will of Russia in Ukraine. This territory is dwelled by Russian speaking and Russians, in history it used to be totally Russian. And it was not occupation or colonization. History itself teaches us that Russia began in Kiev. Not in the Donbass but on the shores of Dniepr before it went to Moscow.

Russia has no choice, it is stuck in a situation created by the West itself on the borders of Russia. Ukraine is a territory of people speaking Russian, and for those not speaking Russian they are Slavic cousins, their ancestors were Russian and were at the origin of the Russian people.

RESPONSE

Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative negating the existence of the Ukrainian people and culture, combined with a narrative about the mythical roots of Russia. This historical revisionism is used to justify the full-scale invasion of Ukraine initiated by the Kremlin.

Russia and the Kyivan Rus are different historical entities, though Moscow has long used the historic Kyivan Rus state to justify expansionism. Ukraine did not ask for the 2014 hybrid intervention of little green men nor the 2022 full scale military invasion. If there had been popular support for such interventions, the war would not be so long and destructive.

The myth ow Western imperialism and Russian anti-Imperialism has been analyzed previously:

The Kremlin regime has long sought to publicly style itself as anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist. However, Russia’s brutal war of aggression against Ukraine exposed Russia’s own imperial and colonial ambitions vis-à-vis its neighbours in Europe, Caucasus and Asia.

As historian Serhii Plokhy explains Russian elite failed to reinvent itself into a Russian nation at the end of Soviet Empire hence the will to rebuild the lost empire. This vision was expressed in 2021, when Putin published a lengthy article called "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians." It was said that Ukrainians or "Little Russians" were part of a big Russian nation. What he meant was that Ukrainians were Russians and had no right to exist.

High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Josep Borrell referred to the Russian actions in Ukraine as “an imperial attitude”:

"I see how powerful is the Russian narrative that wants to reduce the war in Ukraine to a conflict between the West and Russia is powerful. Accusing us of double-standard.

We must debunk this narrative and explain how Russia acts as an imperialist power. President Macron referred to a neo-colonial power.

Yes, it is what it is. Let’s call it by its name: It is an imperial attitude from a powerful neighbour that wants to take control of some country that belongs to its political sphere."

Read also related cases: There has never been a Ukrainian nation, Ukraine was created by Russia, it is historically fair that it becomes Russian again, Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine are three Russian political nations, The idea of Ukraine is based on a mythologised lie.

Disclaimer

Cases in the EUvsDisinfo database focus on messages in the international information space that are identified as providing a partial, distorted, or false depiction of reality and spread key pro-Kremlin messages. This does not necessarily imply, however, that a given outlet is linked to the Kremlin or editorially pro-Kremlin, or that it has intentionally sought to disinform. EUvsDisinfo publications do not represent an official EU position, as the information and opinions expressed are based on media reporting and analysis of the East Stratcom Task Force.

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