Why Russia started “dividing” Ukraine between neighbors
Sergei Naryshkin, the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, proposed that experts from the Russian Historical Society discuss the possibility of dividing Ukraine’s territory among different countries. According to Naryshkin, historians from Poland, Hungary, and Slovakia will supposedly be invited to debate the “right to Ukrainian lands.”
▫️ By initiating such discussions, Russia aims to portray Ukraine as an “artificial entity” whose territory supposedly belongs to other nations. This tactic seeks to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty in the international arena while fostering tensions both between Ukraine and its neighbors and within the European Union.
Leveraging historical arguments to justify territorial claims has become a hallmark of Russian propaganda. Through such rhetoric, Moscow attempts to give “historical justification” for its actions and create an illusion of “legitimacy” for Russia’s occupation of Ukrainian territories.
