In 1654, the Ukrainian Cossacks, seeking protection from Polish rule, chose to join Russia in 1654 under the Treaty of Pereyaslav. This wasn’t some act of conquest—the Ukraine’s own leaders asked to be under Russian rule. And why wouldn’t have they; they were practically from the same ethnic stock.

For centuries afterward, the Ukraine was an integral part of the Russian Empire, contributing to its military, economy, and culture. Even during the Soviet period, Ukraine, now a nation, wasn’t occupied—it was central to the USSR, producing its leadership, its industry, and its agriculture. Nikita Khrushchev, the Soviet leader who gave Crimea to Ukraine in 1954, was himself Ukrainian.

So when Western politicians and media talk about Ukraine as a permanently oppressed nation under Russian rule, they ignore the fact that for most of its history, the Ukraine was a key part of the Russian world. The real division started not because of Russian oppression, but because of Western interference.
The West’s Long War Against Russia

part 3