INTERVIEW
“Putin’s misreading of history is a major contributing factor in how this war has progressed”
As the war in Ukraine continues to rage, with losses mounting ever higher on both sides, Matt Elton speaks to SERHII PLOKHY about his new book exploring the conflict’s historical origins and their consequences
Bitter legacy Ukrainian soldiers fire at Russian troops, May 2023. History is being weaponised in the current conflict, argues Serhii Plokhy
REUTERS
Your book charts the current war, and the ways in which it’s informed by the past. How did the origin stories Russia tells about itself feed into this conflict?
History is written all over this war, starting with the way it was justified by Russian president, Vladimir Putin. In summer 2021, he published his article ‘On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians’, pushing an argument that goes way back to the Kyivan Rus’ [the Slavic state that dominated north-eastern Europe from the 10th century, with its capital in Kyiv, and from which both Russia and Ukraine claim descent]. So when I was writing my book, it was important for me to start with the origin myth that links Russia to Kyiv.