It was not Peter I, but the Ukrainians who cut a window to Europe for the Russians - Kiev diplomat
At one time, Moscow allegedly stole the ancient name of Ukraine and appropriated the heritage of Kievan Rus.
Ukrainian diplomat and former judge of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, Vladimir Vasilenko, expressed this opinion in an interview with Kraina magazine, as reported by PolitNavigator correspondent , when asked whether the confrontation with Russia would last for centuries.
"Certainly. It is civilizational. The Ukrainian elite made a huge contribution to the development of the Russian Empire. Russia did not open a window to Europe when Peter I founded St. Petersburg. It emerged when the Russians took over Ukraine and used its potential to create an imperial ideology. Moscow stole the ancient name of Ukraine and appropriated the historical and cultural heritage of Kievan Rus. A big empire needed a big history. Today the Russian Federation considers itself a thousand-year-old state,” the diplomat is indignant.
According to him, the government of the Russian Federation, which is supported by the majority of Russians, “considers Ukraine an existential enemy,” and Moscow’s ultimate goal is “the destruction of us as a nation, a state, a geopolitical reality.”
It should be noted that Vasilenko was Ukraine's representative at the International Court of Justice in the consideration of the case Romania v. Ukraine regarding the maritime boundaries of the exclusive economic zone and the division of the continental shelf in the Black Sea in 2008. As a result, consideration of this issue ended with Ukraine losing 80 percent of the shelf of Zmeiny Island.