Russian President Vladimir Putin had already spoken for almost an hour on Monday evening before he finally got to the point that prompted his speech: the recognition of the so-called "People's Republics" of Donetsk and Luhansk as independent states.

What he had said up to that point was not a justification for that decision.

Rather, he placed them within a larger historical framework.

Reinhard Veser

Editor in Politics.

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Putin's speech was about Ukraine as a whole: he explained in detail why Ukraine shouldn't actually exist, why it hasn't become a real state in the past thirty years and why its very existence is a threat to Russia.

Putin spoke just as emotionally as he did almost eight years ago when he announced the annexation of Crimea – or in his words: its reunification with Russia – to the assembled Russian political elite in the Kremlin's ballroom.

But this time, Putin didn't stand in front of a large audience that applauded him, instead he spoke to a camera while seated at his desk in his office.

And not only the external circumstances were different, but also the emotions of the Russian President.

Then he appeared as a radiant triumphant, now he spoke like one who has been offended and is driven by the thought of revenge.

A conflict between Russia and the West

In view of Putin's tone and facial expressions, given the many implied and diffuse threats during the speech, the listener could get the feeling that at the end there would be an announcement that would reach far beyond the Donbass.

This impression sticks: on Monday evening Putin announced a further escalation of the conflict with Ukraine, which he sees as a conflict between Russia and the West.

In the very first sentences, the Russian President made it clear what Ukraine is for him: an "inseparable part of our own history", the "historic southwestern Russian lands", whose inhabitants "from time immemorial have called themselves Russians and orthodox".

Today's Ukraine was "completely and entirely created by Russia, more precisely by Bolshevik, communist Russia".

According to Putin, today's borders of Ukraine were created when Lenin first separated historical areas from Russia.

Stalin later added territories to this territory that once belonged to Poland, Romania and Hungary.

In this way, Putin creates the false impression that the Ukrainian state is an artificial entity created at the expense of others.

He is alluding to an idea that has made it onto Russian state television time and again since 2014: Ukraine could be divided between Russia and its western neighbors.

Contrary to what Putin portrays, the founding of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic by the Bolsheviks in 1922 was not an arbitrary act without historical basis.

Since the middle of the 19th century, despite the oppression of tsarist Russia, there had been a rapidly growing Ukrainian national movement, which also had many supporters among communists.

For Putin, however, the creation of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic was a historical mistake, a "mine" on the foundations of the state that later blew apart "historical Russia called the Soviet Union".