In a bellicose presentation that suggested Russia’s military goals in Ukraine are far-reaching, Medvedev, who was Russia’s president from 2008-2012, praised the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union and said Moscow would prosecute its “special military operation” until the Ukrainian leadership capitulated.
“One of Ukraine’s former leaders said at some point that Ukraine is not Russia,” Medvedev, a hawk who diplomats say gives a flavor of the thinking inside the Kremlin, told a youth forum in the Black Sea city of Sochi.
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“That concept needs to disappear forever. Ukraine is definitely Russia,” he said to applause. “Historic parts of the country need to come home.”
There was no immediate reaction from Kyiv. Ukrainian officials have repeatedly accused Medvedev and other top Russian officials of waging an illegal war of conquest and said Ukraine and its people are distinct from Russia and Russians.
Medvedev was speaking in front of a giant map of Ukraine showing the country as a much smaller landlocked rump of land than its internationally recognized territory.
Lithuania’s Foreign Minister @GLandsbergis writes:
— Visegrád 24 (@visegrad24) March 4, 2024
“Some people say NATO is no longer necessary while the Deputy Chairman Russia’s Security Council stands in front of a huge map of the planned imperial conquest of Eastern Europe🤷♂️”
Medvedev showed a map his preferred borders pic.twitter.com/gVNlYPMfW4
The map appeared to depict a scenario where Ukraine would be squeezed up against Poland, with Kyiv remaining its capital, but Russia would be in control of a swath of Ukrainian cities and its east, south and entire Black Sea coastline.
Russia has the initiative on the battlefield and controls just under one-fifth of Ukrainian territory, which it claims as its own, but the scenario is sharply different from the situation on the ground.
Peace talks ruled out
Medvedev, who the West once saw as a liberal reformer, said Russia’s “geostrategic space” was indivisible from Ukraine and that any attempt to change that by force was doomed.
“All our adversaries need to understand once and for all a simple fact: that the territories on both banks of the Dnipro River (which bisects Ukraine) are an integral part of Russia’s strategic and historical borders,” he said.
Medvedev ruled out peace talks with the current Ukrainian leadership. He said any future Ukrainian government that wanted talks would need to recognize what he called the new reality.
Commenting on East-West relations, Medvedev said ties between Moscow and Washington were now worse than during the 1962 Cuban missile crisis when the two countries appeared on the brink of nuclear conflict.
“I will say one bitter thing,” he said. “The current situation is much worse than the one in 1962. This is a fully-fledged war against Russia with American weapons and with the participation of American special forces and American advisers. That’s how it is.”
Reprinted from euractiv.com.
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Comments (8)
Lets just go and fight these Russian wankers, they won't do shit. They are playing poker with a terrible hand, their only chance is to bluff or convince everyone else not to play.
Nobody takes any notice of what Turdvedev says, even on his own side. When he isn't comatose he is drunk or drugged.
Parts of Poland, Romania, and possibly all of Moldova would also be taken, which was not mentioned in this article. The criminally insane communist russian "government" wants to and is trying to restore the ussr.
Ukraine is not russia and speaking of "historical territory" there are several nations that would like their historical territory back from russia.
See, this is the problem...the russian mindset and reading communist written history books.
I hope all those individuals who keep insisting on "peace talks / agreements" are aware of medvedev's position that there will be no peace talks and russia signed the Budapest Memorandum AGREEING to recognize Ukraine's borders. Now, we are at this point. There is no such thing as "talking with and or making agreements" with the criminally insane communist russian government.
aha , the little facker old farter lukashenko showed a map 2 years ago in which he got a large swap of Ukraine
...........someone bites the dust .......
This is not about history it’s about stripping Ukraine of it’s sovereign resources just like Putin is doing in Africa
Thanks for the erroneously time constrained argument towards retrieving the property russia has stole Mr. Medevev.
I recall from one of Historian Timothy Snyder's articles that the formation of the first viking colonies in Ukraine from whence their lineage probably strongly draws, was around 5000 years in advance of Russia's official formation. So they probably need to retrieve more territory beyond the boundaries currently internationally recognized as theirs.
I think the Mongolians and Chinese will also appreciate your argument as they retrieve about 90% of what currently remains of russia. Then of course there are the other victims of Russia colonialism to compensate:
*Finland: Lost ~11% of territory in 1939 Russia ‘Winter War'.
* Poland: Kaliningrad Oblast stolen in WWII.
* Japan: Four southernmost Kuril Islands.stolen in WWII.
* Moldova: Transnistria portion stolen in 1992
* Georgia: Abkhazia and South Ossetia portions stolen in 2008.
I believe that leaves remaining purebred (inbred?) russians with some acreage in a former swamp. Thank goodness for you that that swamp has since been drained.
@John, There is more. I believe this is as near complete a list as possible.
A lot of people in the West do not know this. russia's history is one of ugliness, slavery, oppression and subjugation under the guise of "liberation." Their people have taken the lands of others...Adygea, Altai, Bashkortostan--who wants it's independence... russians have beaten many Bashkirs who were peacefully protesting and brutally beat their leader and gave a lengthy prison sentence just a few weeks ago, Buryatia--a minority who have an unusually high rate of fatalities in russian military, Chechnya, Chuvashia, Dagestan, Ingushetia, Kalmykia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Karelia--belongs to Finland, Khakassia, Komi, Kuril Islands belong to Japan, Mari El, Mordovia, North Ossetia-Alania belongs to Georgia, Sakha Republic, Tatarstan, Tuva, Udmurtia, Vladivostok belongs to China. Sixty-Four Villages East of the River belongs to China,
Pytalovsky District belongs to Latvia, Ivangorod belongs to Estonia, Kaliningrad belongs to Germany.
None of the aforementioned lands are russian...they were taken by force by filthy rotten communist & imperialist russian colonizers.
russia's actual size minus all the stolen land is around the size of Germany.
@Joseph Swanson, Good to know. Thanks for adding that.
Zakharova: bla, bla, bla, not yet denazified, bla, bla, bla.
Peskov: bla, bla, bla, provocation, bla, bla, bla.
Medvedev: bla, bla, bla, nuclear war, bla, bla, bla.
Let’s conduct a little experiment and see how long it will take before they realize that nobody cares anymore.
Their bizarre statements are worth collecting though, because after the war they will serve the court in Den Haag to establish whether they were responsible for the crimes committed on Ukrainian soil, and to what extent.
That Ukraine was an “integral part of Russia” is largely irrelevant. Before that, Ukraine was an integral part of Poland, and once also integral to the Lithuanian-Poland Confederation. The past is over, done — the present is irreversible. When the Soviet Union disintegrated in the 90s, Russia agreed to let Ukraine be independent (just as it did former Soviet republics in Asia and the Baltics). If it was a “mistake” to have done so, own up to your mistake & learn from its consequences.