DISINFO: West created Ukraine to wage war on Russian civilisation
SUMMARY
The West created Ukraine in order to wage war on Russian civilisation.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative questioning the legitimacy of Ukrainian statehood; casting Ukraine as a failing state, fatally dependent on Western sponsorship and unable to make its own strategic choices.
The history of Ukraine dates back to the Kyivan Rus era in the 9th-13th centuries. Early in the 20th century, after the collapse of the Russian Empire, the Ukrainian People's Republic was proclaimed simultaneously with other nations such as Georgia, Finland, Poland, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. When the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in late 1917, Russia attempted to re-establish control over the newly independent states. Soviet Russia managed to take control of Ukraine and establish a Bolshevik regime.
Ukraine asserted its independence from the USSR with the Declaration of Independence of 24 August 1991. The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (the precursor to modern Russia) was one of the first countries to recognise the Declaration; doing so on 2 December 1991.
As a large and politically diverse country, independent Ukraine has since then elected six presidents, each with his own set of domestic and geopolitical priorities. Thus, the respective tenures of Leonid Kravchuk (1991-1994) and his successor Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005) were marked by a period of "multi-vector" balancing between Russia and the West; the pro-Western Viktor Yushchenko (2005-2010) was succeeded by pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych (2010-2014) who, upon his flight in disgrace from Ukrainian politics (and from Ukraine), was replaced by Petro Poroshenko. The latter was elected on a firm pro-EU platform and anti-Kremlin rhetoric during a period of large-scale military aggression by Russia.
See also related disinformation claims alleging that Ukraine and/or the idea of Ukrainian nationhood were "created" by Poland, the United States, "external forces," Vladimir Lenin, the Bolsheviks, and "in the USSR."