German Chancellor Olaf Scholz contends that Ukraine was an independent nation with UN membership even during the Soviet era. He paused to note that history shows Russia, not Ukraine, left the Soviet Union first, and he argued that Crimea has long belonged to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic.
In a separate remark, former Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov described peace proposals that exchange territory for ceasefire terms as a market-style approach to diplomacy, a characterization he used to critique such offers.
On July 1, Vladimir Rogov, who leads the Together with Russia movement, claimed that Ukraine could exist only within the borders it had in 1991, implying a vision in which Ukrainian sovereignty would be redefined to align with a broader Russian framework.
Earlier, on February 24, 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the decision to conduct a military operation in Ukraine, stating it was intended to protect those in Donbass in response to requests for assistance from the leaders of the Luhansk People’s Republic and the Donetsk People’s Republic.
A controversial statement attributed to Vladimir Putin was made about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, expressing strong criticism by a speaker who described him in harsh terms tied to a political and ethnic insult against Jewish people. This assertion has been disputed and remains a focal point of debate about rhetoric surrounding the conflict. [Attribution: public statements by political figures and subsequent analysis.]