Conservative commentator and host Candace Owens is no stranger to liberal heat, but after claiming, “Ukraine wasn’t a thing until 1989,” no less than the former press secretary of Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has stepped forward to respond.
The latest controversy started with Tuesday’s episode of Owen’s Daily Wire show. Owens responded to a “mean tweet” in which one user described Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as “a genocidal colonization.”
Hey, McFly, we didn’t start a war with Russia. Putin didn’t even start a war; he started a goddamn genocidal colonization.
Ukraine is defending itself and the rest of the world from an authoritarian regime, and all you can think about is fossil fuel profitability.
— anthony mihovich 🌻 (@moldy_crow) March 8, 2022
“Wow, ‘genocidal colonization,’ is interesting,” replied Owens. “Again, going back to my point about people being stupid, you know, he’s not trying to commit a genocide of the Ukrainians. That obviously makes no sense because there’s very, there is no difference, ethnically, from Ukrainians and Russians, obviously. Ukraine wasn’t a thing until 1989. Ukraine was created by the Russians. It was, you know, they speak Russian.”
“So it’s absolutely ridiculous,” Owens continued. “And again, this entire episode has been exposing to you how ignorant people are about the goals of Vladimir Putin. He has goals. The goal is not just to get rid of Ukrainians. That makes entirely no sense. It would not be helpful for him, so I would just encourage that guy to get a little more educated.”
Liberal media and the woke Twitter mob wasted no time in pouncing on Owens and fact-checking her historical claims.
“Ukraine has actually been a ‘thing’ for centuries,” Mediaite retorted. “It was once under the control of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in the 17th century. Russia took a portion of Ukraine upon the conclusion of the Russo-Polish War in the 1660s. The country briefly gained independence in 1917 during the Russian Revolution. However, a war between Poland and the Soviets ultimately resulted in most of the Ukraine becoming a Soviet Socialist Republic, with the rest going to Poland.”
“Ukraine finally became independent again when the U.S.S.R. dissolved in 1991,” Mediaite reported.
But, as is often the case with liberal media reports, that’s only part of the story.
Mediate failed to mention that, in the mid-9th century, Kyiv was seized by the Varangians, more commonly known as “Vikings.” In around 882, the ruler of Novgorod, Oleg, captured Kyiv and made it his capital. Kyiv became the center of the very first East Slavic state. It was called Kyivan (Kievan) Rus, according to Britannica.
And according to the World History Encyclopedia, it was, between the years 862 – 1242, “a medieval political federation located in modern-day Belarus, Ukraine, and part of Russia (the latter named for the Rus, a Scandinavian people).”
“The name Kievan Rus is a modern-day (19th century) designation but has the same meaning as ‘land of the Rus,’ which is how the region was known in the Middle Ages,” the encyclopedia states.
So, yes, historically Russian roots run deeply in modern-day Ukraine.
Mediaite went on to argue that Owens made a “false claim” regarding Ukraine’s history by writing: “Moreover, whatever cultural or historic similarities there are between the two countries, given their response to the Russian invasion, it’s clear that Ukrainians have no intention of quietly allowing themselves to be brought under Russian control of influence,” but doesn’t mention the fact that, in 2014, 99.5% of voters in the breakaway region of Crimea voted overwhelmingly to secede from Ukraine and join Russia.
Owens herself responded to Mediaite’s criticism in a lengthy Twitter video.
In it, she stated, “They want us engaged in this conflict. We have serious war hawks, and this is across party lines, Republicans and Democrats, who understand the profit margins when you are engaged in a war.”
“And people like me don’t want to be engaged in a war,” Owens stated. “I don’t think we should be engaged in a war, and I don’t think that by watering down this conversation and trying to convince a bunch of Americans of stupid things, that it’s going to help any.”
“Ukraine wasn’t a thing until 1989!” https://t.co/CpmfX90wCB
— Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO) March 17, 2022
Iuliia Mendel, former press secretary to president Zelenskyy appeared with Eric Bolling on Newsmax to weigh in on the debate.
“In fact, Ukraine also doesn’t want to be involved in this war,” Mendel said in response to Owen’s latest comments. “This is only the Russia — the Russian leadership and Russia who attacks the countries. We don’t want to be involved, but it doesn’t matter what we want. Russia just comes to the territory of different country, kills its people, taking the territory.”
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