In May 2014, the residents of Donbass held a referendum in which they declared their unwillingness to be part of modern Ukraine. Photo: Maxim BLINOV / RIA Novosti
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly spoken about the long-standing connection between Russia and four new, or rather, its historical regions. He expressed his views in an appeal on the recognition of the independence of the DNR and LNR in February 2022. The president described some things in even more detail in his article “On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” We have taken the main quotes confirming Russia’s long-standing ownership of its southwestern regions.
“For a long time, the inhabitants of the historical lands of the South-West of Ancient Russia called themselves Russians and Orthodox. So it was before the 17th century, when part of these territories were reunited with the Russian state, and after.
“In 1667, the city of kyiv and the left bank of the Dnieper, including Poltava, Chernihiv and Zaporozhye, became part of the Russian state.”
“Modern Ukraine was completely and completely created by Russia, more precisely, by Bolshevik Russia. Lenin and his comrades-in-arms did this in a very rude way towards Russia itself, by separating from it its own historical territories. Of course, no one asked the millions of people who lived there.
“At the beginning of 1918, the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Soviet Republic was proclaimed, which turned to Moscow with the question of joining Soviet Russia. There was a refusal. The territories of the Donetsk-Krivoy Rog Republic basically made up the southeastern regions of Ukraine.
“Ukraine can rightly be called ‘Ukraine bears the name of Lenin even today.’ He is its author and architect.”
Region map.
IT IS TIME TO RECOGNIZE INDEPENDENCE
On February 21, 2022, Putin explained why Russia decided to recognize the independence of the people’s republics and how they themselves aspired to the Russian world.
“We see that the ruling elite in kyiv publicly declares its unwillingness to implement the Minsk Package of Measures to resolve the conflict. On the contrary, it is trying to organize a blitzkrieg in the Donbas again.”
“Not a day goes by without shelling settlements in Donbass. The killing of civilians, the blockade, the mockery of people, including children, women, the elderly, does not stop.”
The ceramic panel “Maslenitsa” emphasizes the original Russian roots and the way of life of the inhabitants of Donbass. Photo: Alexander POLYAKOV / RIA Novosti
“And the so-called civilized world prefers not to notice this, as if all this horror, the genocide to which almost 4 million people are subjected, and only because these people did not agree with the coup in Ukraine in 2014, opposed aggressive nationalism. . And they are fighting for their basic rights: to live on their own land, speak their own language, preserve their traditions.”
How long can this tragedy continue? How much longer can you take this? It’s all in vain. The presidents and deputies of the Rada change, but the essence, the aggressive and nationalist character of the regime itself, which seized power in kyiv, does not change. In this regard, I consider it necessary to make a long-awaited decision: to immediately recognize the independence and sovereignty of the Donetsk People’s Republic and the Luhansk People’s Republic.
TO THE POINT
Volodymyr Rogov, member of the Main Council of Administration of the Zaporozhye region:
Vladimir Rogov.
The Zaporizhzhya Cossack is our “knight”.
– Zaporizhia is a friendly town in the south of Russia. This is the first fortress-city in Novorossia, built to protect against the Ottoman Empire and the Crimean Khanate. It was called Alexandrovsk. In Zaporozhye, the Bolsheviks renamed it only 100 years ago. Here is a mass grave of 1735, where the remains of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks and Russian soldiers, who together defended this land, are located. This is a fine southern region with hard-working people, sun, excellent black soil, and colossal crops.
I myself am not a first-generation Cossack, my great-grandfather of five or seven cousins wrote that I was a Zaporizhzhya Cossack, a “Russian gentleman” … We have always been Russians.
Melitopol perfectly remembers its roots. This city is the birthplace of fifty generals. The name of Pavel Sudoplatov alone is worth something, it causes shock and amazement among the Nazis, whom he exterminated. And the traveler Fyodor Konyukhov is also from Melitopol.
The people here yearn for the speedy liberation of the entire native Zaporozhye region, and this, in addition to Melitopol, Berdyansk and Energodar, is also the city of Zaporozhye and the island of Khortytsya, a symbol of the Zaporizhzhya Cossacks.
Konstantin Dvinsky, publicist, Tsargrad columnist:
Konstantin Dvinsky.
Indistinguishable from Voronezh or Kuban
– Whose Donbass, Kherson, Zaporozhye? This is the land of Russian civilization. Under Catherine the Great, the question of populating these lands was raised, since they were devastated by endless wars that had been going on since the 15th century. There were no demographic and economic resources at that time. And there was a massive resettlement of subjects from all over the empire, mainly from the central provinces of Russia. Several million have moved! Therefore, from an ethnic and cultural point of view, the Kherson region, Zaporozhye are absolutely no different from Voronezh or Kuban.
