I came across a message from the round table of the Foreign Affairs Committee at the Federation Council of Russia. The topic was: "The ideology of Ukrainian identity as the foundation of the anti-Russia information project."

I must admit that until now, the term "Ukrainian identity" had not come to my attention, let alone talking about its ideology. However, the aforementioned round table proposed equating political Ukrainian identity with the LGBT movement, thus recognizing it in Russia as "extremist".

A representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs was also present, who stated that Ukrainian identity is on of "anti-Russianism" and a [far-right Ukrainian nationalist Stepan] Bandera-like neo-Nazism, while the fight against it was exemplified by the current generations' fathers and grandfathers, down to 1945.

In Russia, many things which run contrary to reason and logic can be possible, while often it's not worth paying attention to them.

However, curiosity drove me to dive deeper on the internet, and I thus formulated a picture of the matter. I didn't venture very deep into the depths of the internet, but what I did left the impression that the discussion of Ukrainian identity as something dangerous, reprehensible, and to be condemned began after 2014. That is, after the annexation of Crimea and the start of military actions in Donbass, by the Russians. There are also references to earlier times too.

According to more neutral information, Ukrainian identity as a phenomenon originates in Tsarist Russia at the turn of the 19th to 20th century. It primarily signifies being Ukrainian, a Ukrainian identity, and the Ukrainian national project. Initially, its supporters sought autonomy for Ukraine, but soon the demand evolved into one of outright independence.

The goal was to establish a sovereign state, politically oriented towards the West, namely Europe.

This concept of Ukrainian identity spread in the public information space and academic circles at the beginning of the last century in Galicia, then a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and subsequently in the Russian Empire itself. It spread among both Ukrainophile circles and their opponents, the Russophiles.

I also scoured Wikipedia for contemporary information, and that which I found stated that currently, Ukrainian identity can be a general term for all Ukrainians who have ever lived, are alive now, and will live in the future.

These can be both citizens of Ukraine and those who consider themselves Ukrainian, both inside Ukraine and abroad. A Ukrainian identity can also be referred to as a factor in forming the Ukrainian state. Here starts to emerge the reason why the Russian Empire might go into a frenzy over it.

The definition provided above somewhat reminds me of the term "Russian world," (X), and it seems that these two worlds have collided in the minds of Russian imperialists, but with room for only one.

The tale ends with a few references to writings that provide a general picture of the prevailing attitude in Russia towards this Ukrainian identity. Or rather, attitudes, plural, because there are plenty of opinions of various degrees out there.

Regarding the origin of the phenomenon, it is noted that it stretches back to the 19th-century Ukrainophile movement, which was supported by and in the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

This support for Ukrainian identity from beyond its borders stemmed from a desire to weaken Russia and to create a new ethnicity, ie. Ukrainians, one which held a hostile attitude towards Russians. This implies that Ukrainians as a nation do not actually exist and have never existed; they are simply artificially assembled from all things bad. This adds color to Vladimir Putin's historical delusions on the subject of Ukraine.

The ideology of Ukrainian identity, which was discussed in Moscow as something to fight against, is portrayed as abandoning and hating Russian culture, Russia, and the Russians. This is described as outright Russophobia, but with a touch of South-Russian color.

Interestingly, some Russian commentators believe that it is the Ukrainians who introduced the term "Russian world" into socio-political usage. They depicted it as a symbol of all the negativity that can be found in Russia. It must be admitted that such an interpretation of the Russian world is indeed broad, as the amount of negativity that can be found in Russia over the ages is so vast that it would require a collected works format to describe. But the point stands…

The recent past has also not been overlooked when reflecting on Ukrainian identity. For instance, it is proclaimed that Ukrainians have never themselves made a decision about Ukraine's independence or renounced the Ukrainian Soviet Republic. It is argued that this was done by a negligible minority, specifically the local party nomenclature and so-called political Ukrainians

The people were simply presented with this fact. They were promised that with independence, they would become a higher grade of people and gain advantages in the socio-biological competition, whatever that may mean. The people were only required to oppose Russification, the Holodomor, and Russian imperial expansion. This is however indeed correct, and the people surely base their opposition on these issues to this day. Although the writing used as an example indeed had in mind the idea of socio-biological superiority over Russians. And to the people, this acts as an opiate distributed by the Ukrainian elite and its Western sponsors.

Last year in Moscow, another book dedicated to denigrating Ukrainian identity got published, but I have not read it and therefore cannot discuss it in detail. But let's return to the round table that took place at the Duma. There, it was stated that there is no good Ukrainian identity, as in any form, it is an ethno-centric ideology characterized by the denial of its own history and proclaiming its slavery. And all Ukrainians are actually transnationals, or "former Russians." Russia's task is to turn these people from a Ukrainian identity back to a Russianness. Specifically, to the Russian ethno-cultural identity, not to some societal form that would leave Ukrainians with a choice.

In the already occupied territories, a third of the locals are so-called "ждуны" or "waiting ones," whose worldview cannot be changed. There's nothing to be done with them; one must simply wait until they die out.

Such is the prescription for the territories occupied by Russia

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