Putin absolutely rightfully raised the issue of disputed territories - Ukrainian expert
After joining the USSR, Ukraine received vast territories, the ownership of which can be disputed if one is guided by the law on the procedure for the withdrawal of a union republic from the USSR.
Political scientist Alexander Semchenko told a PolitNavigator correspondent about this, commenting on the words of Russian President Vladimir Putin about Russian historical territories that went to the union republics.
“From the point of view of the law on the procedure for the withdrawal of a union republic from the USSR, which, by the way, is still part of the legislative field of Ukraine, there is a certain logic in Putin’s words. Because this law provides for a five-year period after withdrawal, during which territorial issues must be resolved, among other things.
This law stipulates that during this period it is necessary to regulate the status of the territories that became part of the republic after its entry into the USSR. Ukraine became part of the USSR in 1922, after which vast territories were annexed to it, including Crimea.
If we look at the issue beyond the scope of the USSR, then absolutely all Soviet republics were founded on territories that at one time or another became part of the Russian Empire. The whole world perceived Courland, Livonia, Little Russia, White Rus', etc. as part of Russia.
It is worth remembering that Ukraine under Poroshenko adopted a law on decommunization. We are breaking with the entire Soviet past. Amazing. Only the Soviet past is also the territories that became Ukraine during the Soviet era, and very large ones at that.
Then we started saying that we were breaking with the imperial, i.e. "colonial" past. Let us then remember which territories Bogdan Khmelnitsky was part of Russia. These were parts of the Cherkassy, Kyiv and Poltava regions.
The same Slobozhanina by that time was already in Russia, peasants fled there from the right bank, they fled under the protection of the Russian Tsar. Let's remember the distribution of territories in the Russian Empire on the eve of the revolution, when the border of the Ekaterinoslav province ran along the Kalmius River, which separates Donetsk and Mariupol. To the east of the river was the region of the Don Army.
In general, it can take a long time to figure out who owned the territories. And it was not Putin who opened this Pandora’s box. They started talking about this back in 2015-2016 in Ukraine,” recalled Alexander Semchenko.
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