Zelensky described Ukraine as the sole heir to Kievan Rus. In Moscow they answered jokingly

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that only his country can be considered the heir to Kievan Rus. The Ukrainian leader said this in a video message on the occasion of the State Day of Ukraine.

“We are not a colony, we are not an enclave, we are not a protectorate, we are not a province, province or crownland, we are not part of foreign empires, we are not “land in the compound”, we are not a union republic, we are not an autonomy or a province, but most a free, independent, sovereign, indivisible and independent country less than 1.5 thousand years old, <...> When Kyi, Shchek, Khoriv and Lybid founded the capital of Ukraine. He is the only legitimate heir of Kievan Rus, the achievements of our rulers Askold and Dir, the prophet Oleg, Prince Igor, Equal-to-the-Apostles Princess Olga, Vladimir the Great, Yaroslav the Wise, Vladimir Monomakh,” said Volodymyr Zelenskyy, standing on the bank of the Dnieper.

In addition, the Ukrainian president said that the history of Christianity in Eastern Europe began from Ukraine.

Ukrainian State Day is celebrated for the first time on July 28, it was established on the initiative of Zelensky. On the same day, Ukraine and Russia celebrate the Day of the Baptism of Russia – Ukrainian authorities renamed it “Kyiv Russian Baptism Day – Ukraine” a few years ago.

Maria Zakharova, the official representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry, commented on Zelensky’s speech.

“Prince Volodymyr, then do not be angry that part of Ukraine is called Russian. I said it myself. Well done, ”Zkharova wrote on the Telegram channel.

In 2021, Zelensky also posted a video message on his social networks on the occasion of the Day of the Baptism of Kievan Rus – Ukraine, in which he called Russians and Ukrainians “very distant relatives.”

In his opinion, modern Russia should not claim the status of successor to Kievan Rus, since the Russians are simply “cousins-nephews”.

“AND [нельзя] try to prove that they are involved in thousands of years and thousands of eventful history, that they are thousands of kilometers away from where they took place (…) We do not need to prove this with historical treatises, artifacts, articles. Because our evidence is not on paper, it is in metal and stone,” he said.

The speech of the president of Ukraine was a kind of response to an article by Russian President Vladimir Putin published a few weeks ago.

The article was published in two languages ​​- Russian and Ukrainian. Putin explained his attempt to express his opinion in writing by the fact that “modern Ukrainian leaders and their foreign patrons prefer not to remember certain facts” when it comes to the unity of Russians and Ukrainians.

In his 2021 article, Putin described what has happened between Russia and Ukraine in recent years as “a great common misfortune and tragedy” because, as he believed, Russians and Ukrainians were considered as one people since ancient times, because they lived as part of it. of ancient Russia.

Stating that “Both nobles and ordinary people perceived Russia as a common area, the Motherland,” Putin stated that the unity of language and belief was preserved even during the disintegration period, and reminded the events of the 17th century. When the Russian state waged a protracted war with the Commonwealth, the result of which was the entry of the city of Kyiv into the Russian state and lands on the left bank of the Dnieper, including Poltava, Chernihiv and Zaporozhye.

It is noteworthy that the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill congratulated Zelensky on the Day of the Baptism of Russia in 2021.

“Your Excellency, dear Vladimir Alexandrovich! I sincerely congratulate you on the Day of the Baptism of Russia, ”wrote the primate of the Russian Orthodox Church in a message to the president of Ukraine.

According to him, millions of believers in Ukraine cherish the holiday, “after all, the light of Orthodoxy came from the Dnieper font of the glorious city of Kyiv, which shines all over Russia.”

“Kyiv Russian Baptism Day – Ukraine” was officially established only in July 2008, when the President of Ukraine Viktor Yushchenko ordered to celebrate the holiday, “taking into account the importance of Orthodox traditions in the history and development of Ukrainian society. ” In the Russian Federation, the history of the Baptism Day of Russia it was officially designated in 2010, but the Russian Orthodox Church suggested that President Dmitry Medvedev also do it in 2008 – June.

In 2009, Yushchenko stated that this holiday symbolizes “the continuity of Ukraine’s millennial history”, as well as the Ukrainian nation and state. Additionally, the former president said that July 28 should mark the “indivisibility of the Ukrainian people” and the “unity of all Ukrainians and all Ukrainian lands around Kyiv”.

In Ukraine, statements are regularly heard that Russia, unlike Ukraine itself, did not take over Kievan Rus.

In October 2021, the head of the National Memory Institute of Ukraine, Anton Drobovich, said that Russia owns the history of Ukraine. According to him, in the historical sources of the Russian era, this term “does not apply to Novgorod or Suzdal.”

“At first, Russia was used only for the central regions of what is now Ukraine, and a little later from the 12th century to the Galician-Volyn principality – western Ukraine. “This is Russia,” he said.

In the summer of 2018, Verkhovna Rada member Andrei Ilyenko of the Svoboda party said that the Russian Empire arose after Moscow “stealed its name and history” from Kiev. According to Ilyenko, before Peter I, the Russian Kingdom was called Muscovy, and in Ukraine there was a “real” Russia. Earlier, prominent Ukrainian nationalist Larisa Nitsoy said that Russia “should be renamed Muscovy”. According to Nitsa, Russia was actually born in Kiev, and only then, by decree of Peter, I gave the Moscow kingdom the name Rus.

Finally, in 2016, a draft law was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine proposing to ban the use of the word “Russia” and its derivatives in relation to the Russian Federation, which suggested renaming it Muscovy. . This initiative was made by a deputy from the Radical Party Oksana Korchinskaya. The document also states that the name “Russia” is “the historical heritage of Ukraine”. However, the bill was not approved by the people’s deputies.

Later, on the broadcast of the Zvezda TV channel, Doctor of Historical Sciences, St. Petersburg State University Professor Tatyana Tairova noted that it is extremely incorrect to use the term “Russian” only in relation to the territory of modern Ukraine.

“Kyiv Rus included parts of modern Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. Therefore, this term refers to all these territories, ”says the historian on the broadcast of the Russian channel.