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Because of this thread, last night I wanted to look up something to do with the region under discussion, I opened an old-ish atlas: 'Philips Illustrated. (pub. 1988)', and guess what? no 'Ukraine', not in the index & not on any of the maps.
Kiev is there of course, being a major city of the USSR - and was once, long before Moscow, the Russian capital.
There is really no proper Ukrainian language, with most of the population speaking Russian & a mixed dialectic version of Russian & Polish - everyone understands Russian, & many millions want to be aligned with Russia,
Is it any wonder that Vladimir Putin once said, "The collapse of the USSR was the greatest geopolitical disaster of the 20th century",
& can you begin understand how he feels about the encroachment of NATO troops & weapons into the region & right up the new Russian doorstep?