Thread by @KyleWOrton

From Putin's July 2021 essay: "I said that Russians and Ukrainians were one people—a single whole. These words were not driven by some short-term considerations or prompted by the current political context. It is what I have said on numerous occasions and what I firmly believe."

More from Putin's July 2021 essay: "These territories were referred to as 'Malorossia' (Little Russia). The name 'Ukraine' was used more often in the meaning of the Old Russian word 'okraina' (periphery) ... , referring to various border territories ... "

"... And the word 'Ukrainian', judging by archival documents, originally referred to frontier guards who protected the external borders."

https://twitter.com/KyleWOrton/status/1506228939395674117

From Putin's July 2021 essay: "Many centuries of fragmentation [of the Ancient Rus] and living within different states naturally brought about regional language peculiarities [between Russia and Ukraine], resulting in the emergence of dialects."

Note: "regional", "dialects".

From Putin's July 2021 essay: "For those who have today given up the full control of Ukraine to external forces, it would be instructive to remember that, back in 1918, such a decision [by the Directory] proved fatal for the ruling regime in Kiev."

From Putin's July 2021 essay: "Therefore, modern Ukraine is entirely the product of the Soviet era. ... We can disagree about minor details, background, and the logic behind certain decisions. One fact is crystal clear: Russia was robbed, indeed."

From Putin's July 2021 essay: "Ukraine's ruling circles decided to justify their country's independence through the denial of its past ... and refer to the ... Russian Empire and the Soviet Union as an occupation ..."

"... The common tragedy of collectivization and famine of the early 1930s was portrayed as the genocide of the Ukrainian people."

A "revisionist" take on Holodomor, to say the least.

https://twitter.com/KyleWOrton/status/1506235056695783426

From Putin's July 2021 essay: "It would not be an exaggeration to say that the path of forced assimilation, the formation of an ethnically pure Ukrainian state, aggressive towards Russia, is comparable in its consequences to the use of weapons of mass destruction against us."

Putin's July 2021 essay concluded with a reference to Ukraine being under "direct external control" by people running an "anti-Russia project", using Nazis "as its battering ram". The Orthodox schism is blamed on these forces, and clearly offends Putin a great deal.