Ukraine officially announces it is no longer Russia’s ‘brotherly’ nation

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has announced that Russians and Ukrainians are not “brotherly peoples”—not during wartime. The statement came in answer to a question asked by Yuri Shcherbak, former Ukrainian ambassador to the United States, who spoke about the need to dispel “Putin’s myth” about the unity of Russians and Ukrainians.

The conversation took place at a meeting between Ukrainian public figures and Poroshenko on August 20 in Kiev. 

We don’t have any brotherly peoples during wartimes. There are the united Ukrainian people, headed to Europe, and then there are the Russian people, who find themselves in a deep crisis.

Russian officials and diplomats have often stated that Russians and Ukrainians are “one nation,” “one people,” “fraternal,” and “brotherly.” During his visit to Crimea on August 17, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that he believes Ukrainians and Russians to be a “united people.” He also said he thinks Ukraine’s decision to nominate foreigners for public office in Ukraine is a “degrading” move.

Since the beginning of March 2014, an armed conflict has been raging in eastern Ukraine between pro-government forces and separatists. Ukraine has accused Russia of backing the separatists, supplying arms, and sending its own soldiers to fight Ukrainian pro-government forces. Russia has denied these allegations.

Ukrainian-Russian relations have also suffered due to the secession of Crimea from Ukraine and its subsequent absorption by Russia in 2014. Ukraine does not recognize Crimea as a part of Russia.