The response to Russia’s invasion has deep roots in Ukrainian history, says Peter Pomerantsev
efore the invasion, did you struggle to understand Ukraine? Could you place it on a map or picture its people? Perhaps it existed on the periphery of your imagination, a bleak suburb of Greater Russia, which Vladimir Putin claims doesn’t really exist. You wouldn’t be alone. Until recently I had little comprehension of the country – and I was born there.
In 2014 Putin’s forces invaded and occupied the country’s easternmost fringe, after the Maidan unseated as president his kleptocratic ally Viktor Yanukovych. Putin claimed that he was defending ethnic Russians. It felt like an attack not just on my friends, family and a country I had been getting to know, but also on a cosmopolitan way of living and thinking.
Putin and his supporters have tried to split the country between a supposed pro-Soviet east and pro-nationalist west. However, our polling found this split to be a mirage. There were at least four distinct groups. The Ukrainians who were most pro-Soviet were older, often pensioners, and less educated, living largely in rural areas in the south and east of the country. A tiny proportion of the population, less than 5%, approved of Stalin .
The splits were typical of the divide between liberal cities and the socially conservative countryside found in many European countries – but they did not equate to political preferences. The vast majority of people across Ukraine had a similar vision of the future: they wanted a culture of inclusive nationalism within the European Union.
Our research showed that Ukraine had a culture of live and let live. The supposedly pro-Russian cities of Kharkiv and Odessa pride themselves on their cosmopolitanism. In the west, apparently nationalist cities such as Lviv have always echoed with a cacophony of tongues and churches. Ukrainians are accustomed to switching between codes and languages. They are united by knowledge of their differences.
National myths coalesce around a collective: the Cossacks, bands of self-governing warriors who roamed the steppe
Australia Latest News, Australia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
British farmers face extra £760m bill as Putin BLOCKS key exports from leaving RussiaBRITISH farmers could face an extra £760million bill for fertiliser over the coming year thanks to the 'double whammy' of soaring gas prices and Russian moves to suspend fertiliser exports in response to Western sanctions.
Read more »
‘Beating Russia at its own game’ British intelligence stopping Putin win propaganda warBRITISH intelligence is preventing Putin from winning the propaganda war, a defence expert has said, claiming that the UK is 'beating Russia at its own game'.
Read more »
Russia says UK is escalating war and threatens to strike arms shipmentsRussia’s ambassador to the UK has accused the government of attempting to escalate the war in Ukraine. His comments come after it emerged an advanced anti-aircraft missile supplied by Britain has been used to shoot down a Russian helicopter.
Read more »
Hunt for Russian commanders in charge of Bucha atrocities as colonel namedThe suspected commander of Russian operations in Bucha has been named by Ukrainian sources amid demands for accountability over the atrocities by Vladimir Putin’s forces.
Read more »
What Joe Biden’s gaffe says about his end-game in UkraineThe president may be loose in his tough talk, and cautious to a fault in his actions. But in the nuclear age that is perhaps wise
Read more »
The Guardian view on the Russian Orthodox Church: betrayed by Putin’s patriarch | EditorialEditorial: Patriarch Kirill of Moscow has given theological cover for Vladimir Putin’s murderous assault on Ukraine
Read more »