Quote:
Originally Posted by 8 Ball
Forgive my ignorance, but haven’t the Ukrainians been in the region for a long time?
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A popular opinion in Russia is that Ukraine itself is not a legitimate polity, Ukraine has no separate culture and history of its own, Ukrainians are not a culturally distinct people thus Ukrainians are
de facto Russian. Putin and his cronies have stated many times previously that they don't believe Ukraine is a legitimate nation-state and doesn't have any inherent right to exist. (Same goes for Belarus.)