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Why Putin — and Russians — Truly Believe Ukraine Belongs to Russia
I have been covering issues related to Putin’s full-scale invasion since it started and have written approximately 80 posts on the issue. I am doing so now on my podcast as well, available here. I’d love it if you checked it out.
But my attention toward Ukraine did not start in 2022. I researched and wrote about the issue long before the conflict. As a political science student at UBC, I wrote and focused a lot of my attention on the political events at play.
So, a topic that I have been reckoning with is just how much Russians actually believe Ukraine belongs to them.
And a lot of them most certainly do. But their reasoning is based on a number of false premises. Let me explain.
Many forget that in 2014, when Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine, Putin described Crimea as an “inseparable part” of Russia and cited historical and ethnic ties between Russia and Ukraine.
It did not start with Putin’s infamous essay “On the Historical Unity of Ukraine and Russia,” published in 2021.
Of course, the international community almost unequivocally considers the annexation of Crimea to be a violation of both Ukraine’s sovereignty and international law.
