Not only Putin, but most Russians despise Ukrainian culture, Ukrainian history and language, considering it either ridiculous or even threatening Russia.
As the historical scale of Russia's loss to Ukraine becomes increasingly apparent, a heated debate has begun over how Putin's invasion could have failed. One of the common arguments is that Moscow does not understand the mood of Ukrainians at all, and also fatally underestimated the defense capabilities of the neighboring country.
This is a plausible explanation. For many years, it was obvious that the Kremlin despised Ukraine. And he lacks even the slightest understanding of modern Ukrainian realities. Atlantic Council expert Anders Aslund writes about this in his article . A culture of ignorance reinforced by imperialist arrogance has now led to the greatest military catastrophe of the modern era.
The national roots of Ukrainians can be traced back more than a thousand years. But Vladimir Putin refuses to acknowledge that Ukraine is a people in general. He denies Ukrainian history, language, culture and religious traditions, publicly insisting that all Ukrainians are allegedly Russians. As he does not recognize Ukraine's right to exist, his entire understanding of the country is hopelessly disfigured.
But such thinking is not limited to the Russian leader. On the contrary, the denial of Ukrainian statehood and identity has taken root in modern Russian society, reflecting imperialist instincts, which prevents many Russians from accepting Ukraine as something outside the national narrative of their own country.
“Over the decades of meetings in Moscow, I have become accustomed to the arrogant Russian responses that inevitably emerged when talks about Ukraine began. Russians look down on Ukrainians and consider them younger brothers, unable to understand their affairs. Despite the fact that some Russians may sympathize with Ukraine, few of them consider their neighbor worthy of respect as a sovereign country, “Aslund writes.
He recalled how, working in the post-Soviet space in the early 2000s, he once learned that the Russian embassy in Kiev did not have a specialist to monitor the Ukrainian media. Russian diplomats believed that Ukrainian internal debates and affairs were simply parochial to follow. This is the type of contemptuous thinking that laid the groundwork for military miscalculations today.
The lack of experts on Ukraine in Russia itself is also impressive. For the past eight years, Kremlin television has been completely focused on all things Ukrainian, but has failed to create a demand for real experts. This reflects the general notion that Ukrainians are supposedly essentially just Russians. To do this, they can be understood and analyzed without special knowledge. Similarly, most Russians do not even hide their disregard for Ukrainian culture. Some Ukrainian writers, such as Nikolai Gogol, began writing in Russian during their careers. And in Russia it is believed that they have thus moved to a higher cultural level. Ukrainian-language literature is treated with undisguised ridicule.
“I heard a very educated Muscovite dismissively describe a bad author as a real 'writer', using the Ukrainian word,” the author recalls.
Russians show a particularly toxic disregard for Ukraine's history, viewing it as a direct threat to Russia's identity. It is not surprising that Ukrainian heroes, such as Hetman Ivan Mazepa, are demonized, considering them traitors and enemies in all their attempts to consolidate a separate Ukrainian state. But it is difficult to imagine anyone denying the history of Ukraine more than Putin himself. When Russia made its first attempt to dismember the neighboring country in the spring of 2014, Putin called the Ukrainian regions he was about to occupy “Novorossia.” This word has been forgotten since tsarist times. And his return underscores Moscow's imperialist encroachments on much of Ukraine.
In the summer of 2021, Putin went even further by publishing a 5,000-word essay entitled “On the History of the Unity of Russians and Ukrainians.” In this testament to Putin's personal obsession with Ukraine, he rejected the existence of a separate Ukrainian identity and openly questioned the historical legitimacy of the neighboring country. He insisted that Ukraine could only exist as a Russian vassal. Putin's persistent attempts to portray Ukraine as an integral part of Russia have prevented him from noticing many striking cultural differences. And most importantly, he failed to realize Ukraine's thirst for freedom and the readiness of Ukrainians to fight for their democratic rights. As a result, he fell into the trap of his prejudices and convinced himself that the Orange Revolution and Euromaidan were precisely “anti-Russian coups organized by foreign forces.”
According to Putin's conspiratorial views of the world, all great events are organized from above, and no popular movement is possible without the control of sinister shadow forces. This prevented him from understanding the spirit of volunteerism and civic activism that mobilized Ukrainians during the two post-Soviet revolutions. As a result, he was really surprised by the fierce resistance when he ordered troops to cross the Ukrainian border a month ago. Such resistance would be impossible in a politically passive society like modern Russia.
Probably the most important aspect of Putin's contempt for Ukraine is his refusal to learn from his mistakes. His arrogance in 2004, when he decided to teach Ukrainians who to choose as their president, provoked the Orange Revolution. Ten years after his insistence that Ukrainians and Russians are “one people”, they failed in a failed attempt to dismember Ukraine in 2014, followed by eight years of hybrid warfare that drew the world into a new Cold War. The February 2022 invasion was the last and most serious mistake due to Putin's toxic illusions about Ukraine. He seems to have sincerely believed that the Ukrainian army would run away and surrender, and that ordinary Ukrainians would greet Russian soldiers with flowers. His criminal actions have cost the lives of thousands of people, led to the greatest war in Europe since World War II, while turning Russia into a global pariah. Putin's neglect of Ukraine has long been his geopolitical weakness. And now she is leading his country to disaster.
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