In the essay, Putin interprets history in 5,000 words, from the time of the Mongol invasion to the collapse of the Soviet Union. The author accuses Kiev of surrendering to the West, which uses it as part of its campaign against Russia, while calling Ukraine and Russia “almost identical”.
Despite Putin’s claim that Russian and Ukrainian were “virtually identical,” the Kremlin published the essay in both languages.
Since 2014, Ukraine has been in a de facto state of war with Russia, which has occupied and annexed its Crimean peninsula.
In addition, Russia has invaded the eastern regions of Ukraine since the occupation of Crimea. Currently, Moscow’s armed and funded militant gangs control large areas of the Donbass.
Ukraine has been positioning itself as a sovereign and completely separate from Russia for several years. In writing their response to Vladimir Putin’s essay, members of the Ukrainian parliament depict Ilya Repin’s famous painting, “The Zaporozhye Cossacks Write a Letter to the Turkish Sultan,” mocking the “historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians.”