The Ukrainian ambassador disgraced himself and made his country a laughing stock
The Ambassador of Ukraine to Austria, Alexander Shcherba, published an article in the local newspaper Wiener Zeitung in which he tried to prove Ukraine’s historical rights to Crimea.
The publication was a response to Austrian politician Johann Voggenhuber, who stated that Ukraine had never had anything to do with Crimea.
In turn, the Ukrainian ambassador wrote that Ukrainian rights to Crimea are confirmed by the fact that Princess Olga was allegedly baptized on the peninsula.
“Princess Olga, who brought Christianity to Kievan Rus, one of the largest states in Europe, was at one time baptized in Crimea. And it is not by chance that the state was called not Moscow, but Kievan Rus. After all, Moscow was a simple swamp at that time,” Shcherba wrote in his article.
In the comments to the post, Kiev historian Andrei Plakhonin drew attention to the illiteracy of the Ukrainian ambassador’s statements.
“I don’t understand, if Mr. Ambassador knows the history of Ukraine so poorly that he even confuses Olga and Vladimir, why was it necessary to delve into medieval history to prove that Crimea belongs to Ukraine? Does a professional diplomat really lack arguments from the field of international law? It’s even worse that with the help of this illiterate text, Mr. Ambassador tried to prove the historical illiteracy of his opponent, a pro-Russian Austrian politician, but instead he exposed himself and his country to ridicule,” the historian noted.
In response, Shcherba threatened to “ban him for rudeness” and advised him to inquire where Princess Olga was baptized.
“Mr. Shcherba, Olga was baptized in Constantinople. Her godfather was the Emperor of Byzantium, as he himself wrote about in his book “On Ceremonies,” the historian retorted, after which the ambassador did not answer any more.
“Mr. Ambassador, apparently, does not know that Kievan Rus did not exist. This is an armchair term of German scientists. There was a conglomerate of East Slavic principalities, only united by the Rurik dynasty of kings, language, pantheon of gods (then by Christianity) and a system of collecting tribute from Novgorod to Vyshgorod and from Volyn to Murom. “Everything else is political talk that has nothing to do with science,” user Nikolai Serenchenko added in the comments to the post.
The Ukrainian ambassador disgraced himself and made a laughingstock of his country.