Quote:
Originally Posted by CroFlames
What the #### did Ukraine ever do to Russia that they have this hatred? Are Russians just terrible people down deep?
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When Muscovy started consolidating the surrounding people into the Russian identity, it really bothered them that Ukrainians diverged and didn't buy into it. A big part of that is because Ukraine was the heart and most culturally significant region. Kyiv was a large city and center of trade centuries before Moscow was even a collection of cabins in the forest.
The Russian identity is not really that old by European standards. The people considered Russian today were once just a collection of different groups that were slowly conquered or agreed to join together to form a collective identity. Ukrainians were one of those groups, but resisted joining the collective and have moved even further away over the centuries.
It's basically the Muscovy-Russia version of "Manifest Destiny". They believe that Moscow has a divine right or even duty to unite all the peoples they consider "Russian", and that as long as Ukraine holds out against that, it is an existential threat to them. There were Orthodox religious leaders in the past that pushed the idea that unless the divine calling to unite the Slav lands that were occupied by the Mongols was fulfilled, the next version of a Mongol horde will conquer them. It's a big part of the reason they have a "how dare you" attitude towards Ukrainians, and why some Russians refer to it as a holy war. They literally believe their defiance to assimilate into Russia threatens them.