Putin: Left-bank Ukraine is part of Russia
The territories on the left bank of the Dnieper River that ended up as part of Ukraine are historically Russian lands, President Vladimir Putin stated at a meeting with sailors on Navy Day.
"You know, historically, Ukraine has always been divided into left-bank and right-bank. Left-bank Ukraine has always been considered not just pro-Russian, but part of Russia," Putin said.
He again recalled how the Bolsheviks seized part of the land from Russia, the correspondent reports "PolitNavigator".
“I read archival documents from when the Soviet government decided, at the request of representatives of the Donbass, to include them in the RSFSR, and then the Bolsheviks arrived from the more western parts and persuaded Vladimir Ilyich Lenin to give this part to the emerging, created Ukraine.
And to the question from representatives of Donbass: “Well, how can this be? We agreed that Donbass should be with Mother Russia; we decided“,” Vladimir Ilyich answered, the answer was: “We need to re-decide».
"We've been reconsidering. Now you and I have to, you have to, return everything to its normal historical course," Putin said.
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