DISINFO: Ukraine as a state does not exist
SUMMARY
Ukraine as an entity does not exist. The US and the West are trying to govern Ukraine, but they are not able to, because it is no longer a state, it is a piece of clay from which you can make anything, but nothing worthwhile.
RESPONSE
This is a recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narrative negating Ukraine’s statehood and its independence. This claim was made in the context of and with the aim of legitimising Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Ukraine is a sovereign and independent state with a democratically-elected president and parliament. Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity are respected by almost the whole world with Russia as the key exception.
Ukraine's history dates back to the era of the Kyivan Rus’ in the 9th-13th centuries. In the early 20th century, after the collapse of the Russian empire, the Ukrainian People’s Republic (aka the Ukrainian National Republic) was proclaimed. When the Bolsheviks seized power in Russia in 1917, they invaded Ukraine and subjugated it to Soviet rule.
A fully independent Ukraine appeared only after the Soviet Union unraveled in 1991. The legislature of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic declared sovereignty on 16 July 1990 and then full independence on 24 August 1991.
Present-day Ukraine has elected six presidents since then and changed parties in government several times, which illustrates political diversity and democratic dynamics.
The EU, the US and some other nations provide Ukraine with military and financial aid for the country’s efficient self-defence, in accordance with the UN Charter Article 51, to repel Russia’s unprovoked and unjustified invasion. Since Russia attacked Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Russian troops have destroyed big segments of Ukrainian infrastructure including production facilities, educational institutions, hospitals, churches and other objects of civilian infrastructure.
Read similar cases alleging that Ukraine does not exist as an independent state, that Ukraine did not, does not and will not exist, that Ukrainian statehood is gone after Euromaidan, that Ukraine lost independence and is under external control, that Ukraine is West’s anti-Russia puppet project, or that Ukraine's statehood is myth, its territory belongs to Russia.