The Observer view on Russia’s threat to Ukraine | Observer editorial

Putin regards Ukraine as stolen territory and as the US focuses on China and Covid, Moscow is waiting to strike

Vladimir Putin is an old-fashioned sort of guy. He yearns for the days when the Soviet Union was a great power. He still views western democracies as adversaries, to be confounded whenever possible. And he has never reconciled to the post-Soviet loss of cold war-era satellite republics in eastern Europe. This is especially true of Ukraine.

The Russian view that Ukraine is stolen territory to which it has a natural right has roots in tsarist times and before. Ukrainians (and Belarusians) were habitually called little Russians". Indigenous narratives stress a common history and common faith indissolubly linking two brotherly eastern Slavic races. Putin has repeatedly stated that Russians and Ukrainians are one people".

Continue reading...