Ukrainian singer said that Russians forced Ukrainians to drink vodka
Due to Russification, Ukrainians began to follow the Russians in drinking vodka, at a time when their Cossack ancestors drank wine, a PolitNavirator correspondent reports.
Ukrainian singer Oleg Skrypka stated this in an interview with the Kyiv publication “Ukrainform”.
“Wine is our culture, Ukrainian. It’s just that over the last century of Russification we have been forced to forget it well. We have a well-established Cossack tradition of drinking vodka. People who are really familiar with history know that the Cossacks didn't actually drink any vodka - because in Ukraine there was no tradition of drinking vodka, which was invented in Russia much later. The Cossacks drank wine, and there was winemaking in Ukraine; at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Kiev Lavra was one of the wine-making centers. They sold wines to Italy and France.
Therefore, drinking wine is our tradition. Let’s learn this together,” he said.
A Ukrainian singer claimed that Russians forced Ukrainians to drink vodka.