Jens Asbjørn Bøgen
According to the Russian leader, the only guarantor for Ukraine’s territorial integrity is Russia.
Russian President Vladimir Putin addressed Russian Navy personnel on Sunday with a series of sweeping claims about the future of Eastern Europe.
Speaking to sailors, he insisted that Ukraine would eventually see its borders shrink dramatically.
“I am confident that sooner or later Ukraine will lose these western territories, lands that once belonged to Poland, Hungary and Romania. It may not happen tomorrow or the day after tomorrow. It may take one year, two years, 10 years or 15 years, but history will ultimately put everything back in its place,” Putin said, according to Russian state news agency TASS and Ukrainian news outlet Ukrainska Pravda.
The Russian leader offered no concrete evidence to back up his claims. Instead, he presented a skewed version of regional history to justify the ongoing war.
He also claimed that Moscow had once been the sole defender of Ukrainian sovereignty. “There was only one guarantor of Ukraine’s territorial integrity. It was Russia. But they decided it was necessary, possible and beneficial for them to declare Russia their enemy,” Putin said.
It should be noted that according to the 1994 Budapest Memorandum, Russia, the United States and the UK all pledged to respect Ukraine’s sovereignty and independence.
What is he talking about?
From the 14th century through the 18th century, large parts of central and western Ukraine were ruled by the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.
Some western Ukrainian regions were part of the Austrian and Austro-Hungarian empires until the end of World War I in 1918.
Between the two world wars, parts of western Ukraine were integrated into Romania and Czechoslovakia.
During the 18th century, much of central, eastern and southern Ukraine was absorbed by the Russian Empire, and later became the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic under the Soviet Union.
Ukraine’s current internationally recognized borders were established when the country gained independence in 1991.
Spiders in a jar
Throughout his address, the Russian leader attempted to portray Ukrainian officials as deeply divided and corrupt. He alleged that political figures in Kyiv were busy squandering international assistance while fighting amongst themselves behind closed doors.
He claimed Ukrainian leaders have “clashed and fallen out with each other like spiders in a jar, dividing up the money they have stolen from the Ukrainian people or are stealing from their Western sponsors.”
The Russian president further asserted that the conflict would ultimately end with a complete Russian victory. He repeated familiar Kremlin talking points, insisting that Moscow did not launch an unprovoked invasion but was forced to act by Western powers.
While Kyiv and its international allies view the invasion as an illegal war of aggression, Putin framed the campaign as an effort to restore historical balance. The speech marks yet another attempt by the Kremlin to undermine Ukraine’s legitimacy on the world stage.
