Russia’s war against Ukraine goes far beyond military aggression — it’s rooted in centuries of historical manipulation designed to justify imperial ambitions. By distorting the legacy of Kyivan Rus, romanticizing the Soviet Union, and twisting key historical events, Moscow builds myths to undermine Ukraine’s sovereignty.

Those narratives are crucial to analyse and discuss as Western academia is still predominantly Russo-centric. For decades, Western schools and universities have taught about Ukraine, Georgia, Poland, and other countries from the region through the prism of Russian history and ideology. This mirrors Russian imperial propaganda, which claims Ukraine is a failed state, devoid of a nation, with people who either want to be Russian or are Nazis if they don’t.

This narrative thrives in today’s information space. You see it under tweets from Elon Musk, who has turned ex-Twitter into an echo chamber and a platform for Russian propaganda, amplifying voices that perpetuate these ideas. I’ve encountered it firsthand as well. In 2023, while speaking at a small event in London about the forcible deportation of Ukrainians to Russia, a woman was fixated on one question, “What are you going to do with all the Russians who moved to the occupied territories?” She seemed unconcerned about abducted Ukrainian children and focused only on whether Russian adults, who had knowingly moved into stolen homes, would be “punished”.

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