For my English-speaking friends, especially from India. Indian journalist Palki Sarma visited Kyiv this winter and made several reviews on the tension between Russia and Ukraine. She is a fair person, she has her view, so I recommend her reportage.

I know that India had and has had a good relationship with Moscow since the time of Independence. I think Indians do not understand the deep cause of the USSR collapse. From their distant point, we all here are the same people. Moscow propaganda does the same trying to present Ukrainians and Russians as one and the same people. Yes, a lot of Ukrainians speak the Russian language, but 99% of Russian even do not understand the Ukrainian language. It is similar for India because a lot of Indians speak English, but 99% of English people do not understand Hindi or Tamil. To know and speak Russian or English does not mean, that people are Russian or English.

Ukraine has its own ancient history of cultural civilization since at least 7500 years ago. At that time territory of modern Russia was just a wild empty place. Peopling of that territory began much later from what is now South Siberia and Altai mountains due to specific climate conditions.

Ukraine was engaged in the history of the well-known Near East and the Mediterranean since the time of the Hittites and Trojan war. Our ancestors fought successfully against the Persian king Darius the First in 505 BC, before the famous Marathon battle between Greeks and Persians. And so on.

Only in the 17^th century because of hard war with what is now Poland, Turkey, etc, Ukraine made allied with Moscow. In 1709 Ukraine took the side of Sweden king Karl 12 against Moscow tyrant Peter the Great. Sweden and Ukraine lost the decisive battle and became a vassal territory of Moscow.

Ukraine rebelled many times, but that was not the right time. At least in 1991, Ukraine got its Freedom. So, we are the well different country with different history and heritage. And Freedom is our religion. I hope, Indians having their colonial and post-colonial history well understand the matter. Great India is a Union of many nations similar to the European Union or the American Union, but not as China or the former British Empire. Union of a free nations and totalitarian empire are great differences, you understand. So Ukraine is an ancient and free nation with its own vision of our future. And I recommend watching Palki Sarma’s reportage from Ukraine.