A millennium of resilience and sovereignty

Ukraine officially celebrates 15 July as Ukrainian Statehood Day, marking the foundation of its statehood through the Christianization of Kyivan Rus in 988. 

This commemoration takes place amidst Russia’s ongoing full-scale invasion — an assault not only on Ukraine’s territory but on its very identity. Alongside military power, the Kremlin continues to wage a campaign of historical falsification, cultural erasure, Russification, and propaganda aimed at destroying Ukraine’s statehood and turning back the clock of history.

The World must know, that Ukrainian statehood is not a recent invention, nor a product of shifting borders — it is rooted in more than a millennium of continuous political, cultural, and spiritual development.

Ukraine’s statehood traces back over a thousand years, beginning with Prince Volodymyr the Great, who in 988 led the Christianization of Kyivan Rus — a powerful polity centred in Kyiv. Kyivan Rus possessed its own language, law, and diplomatic relations, forming the foundation of Ukrainian nationhood. The ruling house of Kyivan Rus forged dynastic ties across Europe through marriage. The most notable example is Princess Anna of Kyiv, daughter of Prince Yaroslav the Wise, who became Queen of France in the 11th century as the wife of King Henry I.

The historic Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv, established during this era and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, embodies this heritage. At its 46th session, held in New Delhi in July 2024, the UNESCO World Heritage Committee officially recognized Russia’s invasion as a direct threat to Ukraine’s cultural heritage. The committee called on Russia to refrain from any actions that may damage Ukrainian World Heritage Sites. In June 2025, Saint Sophia Cathedral suffered damage during Russian attacks. 

Following the fall of Kyivan Rus in the 13th century, Ukrainian statehood persisted in the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. From the 15th century onward, the rise of the Cossacks reflected growing aspirations for autonomy and self-defence against external domination, culminating in the establishment of the Cossack Hetmanate in the 17th century.

Under Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky, the Hetmanate negotiated complex alliances, including the 1658 Treaty of Hadiach, which sought to establish a tripartite Commonwealth with Poland and Lithuania. That vision — of Ukraine as an equal member in a European political community — is reflected today in the modern Lublin Triangle cooperation between Ukraine, Poland, and Lithuania.

A landmark moment in Ukraine’s political tradition came in 1710, when Hetman Pylyp Orlyk authored one of Europe’s first constitutional documents. It was one of the first documents to outline principles of the separation of powers and reaffirmed the democratic ideals embedded in Ukrainian political culture. On June 28, 2025, to mark Ukraine’s Constitution Day, the Embassy of Ukraine was honoured to present a photocopy of the 1710 Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk, along with the modern Constitution of Ukraine, to the Museum of Constitution, Freedom and Rights at OP Jindal Global University in India.

These democratic aspirations, however, faced systematic repression from the Russian Empire and later the Soviet Union. From the late 18th century onward, Moscow implemented policies aimed at erasing Ukrainian identity: the abolition of the Cossack Hetmanate in 1764 ended centuries of Ukrainian self-governance. Russian Empire abolished the office of Hetman and placed Ukrainian territories under direct imperial control. Ukrainian language and culture were further targeted — banned under Catherine II, and later by the Valuev Circular of 1863 and the Ems Ukaz of 1876, which prohibited Ukrainian-language publications and education.

In the aftermath of the Russian Empire’s collapse, Ukraine declared independence and established the Ukrainian People’s Republic in 1917. It built democratic institutions, opened diplomatic missions abroad, and promoted cultural diplomacy. Although this period of independence was forcibly ended by the Bolsheviks, it laid the foundations for Ukraine’s modern statehood. In 1919, it united with the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic in a landmark moment of national consolidation.

During Soviet rule, Ukrainians endured severe repression. The Holodomor of 1932–33, a famine orchestrated by Stalin’s regime, caused millions of deaths. In 1944, approximately 200,000 Crimean Tatars were forcibly deported by Stalin’s regime from their homeland in Crimea to remote regions of Central Asia in a brutal act of ethnic cleansing. Since Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea in 2014, these repressive practices by the occupying authorities have continued, including systematic arrests, suppression of their cultural and political rights, and ongoing attempts at ethnic cleansing.

The Executed Renaissance of Ukrainian intellectuals was brutally suppressed in the 1930s. Between 1930 and 1953, approximately 2 million Ukrainians were imprisoned in the Gulag system for political reasons, including many dissidents who continued the partisan fight for freedom throughout Soviet times.

Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s principles of non-violence, the Granite Revolution of 1990 peacefully asserted Ukraine’s sovereignty. Ukraine declared independence in 1991, with over 90% of citizens endorsing it on December 1.

Subsequent democratic movements — notably the Orange Revolution in 2004 and the Revolution of Dignity in 2013–2014 — profoundly shaped Ukraine’s modern political landscape and affirmed its European aspirations. The Revolution of Dignity was sparked by the pro-Russian puppet government’s sudden decision to abandon the EU Association Agreement in favour of closer alignment with Russia. It culminated in the ousting of the then president and a powerful reaffirmation of Ukraine’s commitment to democratic reform and European integration

These revolutions collectively prevented the rollback of Ukraine’s sovereignty and decisively rejected any return to Moscow’s protectorate, embodying the enduring spirit of freedom and resilience that continues to define the nation today.

Since 2014, beginning with the illegal annexation of Crimea and the orchestrated war in Donbas, and escalating further with the full-scale invasion in 2022, Russia has employed various methods to undermine Ukrainian statehood. These include military aggression, forcible passportization of Ukrainian citizens in temporarily occupied territories, and systematic efforts to erase Ukrainian identity.

Such forcible passportization, in our view, leads to the alteration of national identity and demographic composition in the temporarily occupied territories. It serves to replenish the aggressor country’s military manpower by mobilizing and involving residents of these territories in hostilities against the Ukrainian defence forces. This policy is accompanied by purges and expulsions of those deemed disloyal to the Kremlin. Moreover, it increases pressure on Ukrainian citizens living in the occupied areas to obtain Russian citizenship as a prerequisite for access to basic services such as education, healthcare, and social support.

The Russian Orthodox Church has become a tool of Kremlin propaganda, with Patriarch Kirill blessing the invasion and clergy sent to occupied territories to justify violence under the guise of faith. Those who preach peace face persecution.

Since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Russia has forcibly deported and abducted over 20,000 Ukrainian children, subjecting them to systematic indoctrination aimed at erasing their national identity. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin for the unlawful transfer of children from occupied Ukrainian territories — an act recognized globally as a war crime.

Thus, Putin’s regime seeks to rewrite history and reduce Ukraine to a subservient protectorate — a continuation of Russia’s imperial neo-colonial ambitions and a return to the darkest days of authoritarian domination. 

But Ukraine’s history is a testament to the enduring will of its people to live in freedom and independence, to their resilience, and to their steadfast commitment to defending their national identity. In February 2022, Ukraine formally applied for European Union membership, recognizing integration into the European family as essential for safeguarding its independence and sovereignty. 

Repression does not erase Ukrainian identity. It only strengthens our resolve to defend it.

Slava Ukraini!

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