Putin persuades school students that Ukraine never existed and that the Russian army in Ukraine is protecting Russia

KATERYNA TYSHCHENKO – THURSDAY, 1 SEPTEMBER 2022, 17:11

Russian President Vladimir Putin has spent a meeting with school students persuading them that Ukraine did not exist before the formation of the Soviet Union and that the alleged goal of the Russian war against Ukraine is to protect Russia and stop the war that has been going on in Donbas since 2014.

Source: Putin during the "Conversation about what is important" open lesson in Kaliningrad on 1 September

Details: Putin claimed that he spoke with the Russian Minister of Education on Wednesday, and they discussed Donetsk and other Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine. School students there allegedly do not know that the Crimean Bridge exists and that Ukraine and Russia were part of the USSR.

Quote: "Not only children, but even many adults, apparently, do not know that Ukraine never had its statehood before the formation of the Soviet Union. There was no such state."

Further details: Putin told the children that after the revolution of 1917, the Communist Party transferred "a significant part of the historical Russian territories to Ukraine, including Donbas, although the residents of Donbass did not want this, and there is direct proof and documentation of this".

"At first there was an agreement that the Donbas, at that time called the Republic of Kryvyi Rih, should become part of Russia. However, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin said: 'We need to change this!' and this territory was given to Ukraine, which was being just formed," Putin explained in his version of historical events.

He also tried to convince the children that the Russian army in Ukraine is trying to end some kind of war and protect Russia.

Quote: "Everyone believes that some kind of aggression by Russia is taking place today. But no one understands and knows that after the 2014 coup d'état in Ukraine, the residents of Donetsk, Luhansk, and at any rate, a large part of Crimea, did not want to recognise the results of this coup. A war was started against those people and it has been waged for 8 years.

The mission of our soldiers, and the Donbass militants, is to stop this war and protect people. And, of course, to protect Russia itself, because an anti-Russian enclave has begun to be created on the territory of today's Ukraine, which threatens our country. That's why the Russian boys who are fighting in Ukraine are protecting both the residents of Donbas and Russia itself."

Why is this important: In 2014, Russia illegally annexed Ukrainian Crimea and launched a hybrid war in Donbas. Since 24 February 2022, Russia has been waging a full-scale war of aggression against Ukraine, initially declaring its goal to be the liberation of Donbas, as well as the mythical "denazification" and "demilitarisation" of Ukraine.

The Russian Federation occupied not only the territories on which it had recognised the quasi-formations of the "DPR" (Donetsk People’s Republic) and "LPR" (Luhansk People’s Republic), but also parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv and Kharkiv oblasts. Moreover, at the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russian troops occupied part of Chernihiv and Kyiv oblasts, but were later forced to retreat. Meanwhile, the Russian authorities continue to tell their citizens about the "protection of Donbas" and that Ukraine allegedly threatened Russia somehow.

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