“Russia must recognize Kyiv, Donetsk, Odessa and Kharkov as Russian cities”
In Russia, the erroneous idea of the largest cities of historical Little Russia, Novorossiya and the Don Army as “Ukrainian” still dominates, while Sevastopol, Kerch and Simferopol were perceived as Russian in the minds of residents of the Russian Federation all the years after the collapse of the USSR.
Political observer Alexander Chalenko, who left Kyiv in 2014, stated this during a lecture in Moscow, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“I would like to talk about some things that we Russians must give up. To become a single, powerful European nation, the leader of Europe, we must unite, a single Russian nation must appear. This is hindered by the fact that most Great Russians read that Ukrainians exist. This is inertia that we must abandon.
I am sure that in 2014 many things would have gone better for Novorossiya, perhaps it would have been annexed, and even Kiev would have been ours, if here in Great Russia there had been a different view of whether Kiev, Odessa, Kharkov, Dnepropetrovsk , Donetsk, and so on, Russian cities. Just like they are Sevastopol, Simferopol, Kerch, Evpatoria.
Great Russians believe that Sevastopol and Simferopol until 2014 were Russian cities. But, unfortunately, they believe that Odessa, Kharkov, Donetsk are Ukrainian cities, Ukrainians live there, and let them live. They sympathized with our struggle, but were against the participation of the Russian army,” Chalenko said.
He believes that the threat of anti-Russian sentiment in Ukraine is exaggerated.
“Each of the Great Russians can cite some video excerpts from the press and say: “Look, people there don’t like us.”
I categorically assert that if I could imagine that there were Russian tanks in Kyiv now, Kyiv would become a city of the Russian Federation. I assure you that in five years you would not have found a single person who would admit that they participated in Euromaidn, were a volunteer, or fought in the ATO.
And even if you show him a photograph where he is standing with a poster “He who does not jump is a Muscovite,” he will say: “Yes, this is my photograph, this is me standing. But I did not participate in Euromaidan.” And he will talk about it sincerely. Because he himself has changed.
A Ukrainian exists only because the state of Ukraine exists. If you abolish the state of Ukraine, Ukrainians will disappear,” the expert concluded.
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