V. Zorkin stated that there is no Ukraine on that map. As seen in a video circulating on social media, Putin replied: “Well, of course.”

“After all, we know that these lands simply belonged to the Republic of the Two Peoples, and later they asked to be accepted into the Moscow Tsardom. Thats all. That’s how he joined the Moscow Tsardom. Only later, after the October Revolution, did various quasi-state formations begin to form, and only the Soviet government created Soviet Ukraine,” stated V. Putin.

However, there was a wave of mockery on social networks after journalists drew attention to several important aspects, including the fact that Ukraine is still there on the map brought by V. Zorkin.

First of all, it was noticed that Crimea is not part of Russia on that map – the peninsula is circled as a separate state. 17th century there was the Crimean Khanate, which was at war with the Ottoman Empire as an ally Russia. Crimea was included in the composition of the Russian Empire only in the 18th century. at the end Despite this, the Russian authorities, justifying the 2014 annexation of Crimea, the peninsula is called exclusively Russian territory.

Not only that, the area where St. Petersburg will later be built is marked on the map as Sweden’s Ingria, according to journalists.

Finally, the journalists confirmed that the map brought by V. Zorkin also includes Ukraine. It is called “Ukraine pays des Cossacks”. Translated from French, it means “Ukraine, the land of the Cossacks”. At the time the map was drawn, that land belonged to the Republic of the Two Nations.

V. Putin has explained more than once, including an appeal against Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine last February, that Ukraine was created by Vladimir Lenin and until the Ukrainian SSR came into existence, such a country did not exist at all. Many historians have criticized the attempt to interpret historical events in this way – both in the distant past and in the 20th century, when after 1917 revolution, the independent People’s Republic of Ukraine was founded.