MOSCOW, April 17. /TASS/. The current regime in Kiev is destroying anything and everything that has traditionally connected Ukraine and Russia, a senior Russian diplomat said on Monday.
Addressing an academic conference titled "Ukraine Between Russia and the West" at the Russian Historical Society, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said, "The history of Ukrainian lands is very diverse and very complex. Our detractors have lately been making active attempts to distort the historical path of [these lands’] development and to rewrite, ex post facto, historical perceptions about Russia and Ukraine. Having swallowed this narrative hook, line and sinker, the current authorities in Ukraine are actively destroying anything and everything that in some way has served to bind our countries together."
According to Galuzin, at Kiev’s initiative, "history textbooks have been rewritten, with works of literature and music being banned, and monuments and cultural objects being destroyed."
However, the diplomat pointed out that the international community has always perceived Ukraine and Russia to be parts of a single cultural and historical entity, "which may have undergone times of troubles, but always inevitably reconstituted itself into a unified whole."