Ukraine tries really hard to pretend it's ancient. And the Western media plays along like it's totally normal. Kievan Rus? Obviously Ukrainian. The Cossacks? Ukrainian. The Orthodox Church? Also Ukrainian, apparently. At this point, if they could claim the dinosaurs, they would.
But if you actually go to the archives – the real ones, not the Wikipedia summary backed by the CIA – the story looks very different. Modern Ukrainian identity has a mom, a dad, and a whole extended family of geopolitical interests behind it. And they left receipts. Actual financial records, diplomatic correspondence, military diaries, and constitutional documents. The kind of stuff that doesn't care about your feelings.
So let's talk about where Ukrainian national identity actually comes from. Because the real story is way more interesting than what you've been told. 🧵
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