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Putin's view of Ukraine at odds with history
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Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a videoconference meeting with members of his government, at the Kremlin in Moscow, on March 10, 2022.
PHOTO: EPA-EFE
Thomas Graham
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For many years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has tried to delegitimise Ukraine as an independent state and the Ukrainian people as a distinct nation.
He insists that Ukraine is largely made up of former Russian territory, which Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin and his henchmen separated from Russia proper, and combined with lands of the former Austro-Hungarian Empire shortly after the Russian Revolution of 1917. Russians and Ukrainians, he argues, are one people with a common history that goes back centuries.
