When the Russian Federation, on the orders of President Putin, invaded the territory of independent Ukraine on February 24, 2022, one of the main goals of the Russian troops was to conquer the capital of Ukraine - Kyiv. This attack failed and the Russian Army withdrew to concentrate on eastern Ukraine. Here, Konstant Teleshov explains why Kyiv remains an important target for Vladimir Putin.
The Baptism of Kievans by Klavdy Lebedev.
Thanks to the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people and the competent actions of the military-political leadership of Ukraine, the Russian army suffered a humiliating defeat near Kyiv and Chernihiv during the Russo-Ukrainian War, after which it was forced to retreat at the end of March 2022.
Historical meaning
In recent years, Russian President Vladimir Putin has made the country's historical past an important element and pillar of his regime, which some political experts call Putinism. He wrote several articles, one of which is called "On the historical unity of Russians and Ukrainians." In this article, the Russian autocrat positions himself as a supporter of the concept of the triune Russian people, which for centuries has formed a single cultural and spiritual space of historical Russia - a large ethnocultural region in Eastern Europe, historically inhabited by three peoples - Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians.
One of the most important components of the common historical past of these three peoples is a medieval state called Kievan Rus, which existed from 862 to 1240. During its peak, Kievan Rus occupied the territory from the White Sea in the north to the Black Sea region in the south. It consists of many principalities (provinces). One of the provinces of Kievan Rus was the Grand Duchy of Vladimir, one of the parts of which was the Principality of Moscow - the future center of the Russian Empire. The Moscow principality became an independent state only in the 13th century, becoming one of, but not the only successor of Kievan Rus.
The capital of Kievan Rus, located in the north-east of Europe, was Kyiv. The modern Ukrainian capital from the second half of the 9th century has an interesting name - "the mother of Russian cities." Why did such a paradox arise? The fact is that Kyiv was first called the "mother of Russian cities" by the semi-legendary Varangian prince Oleg, who seized power in this city in 882. This is written in the chronicle "The Tale of Bygone Years", which is dated to the 12th century.
Thus, Kyiv was declared the political, cultural, economic and religious center of Kievan Rus. The name "mother of Russian cities" is similar in its meaning to the expression "mother of all cities", which is used to characterize Jerusalem as the religious center of the world. In fact, the “mother of cities” is a calque from the Greek word “metropolis”, which was used to denote a capital city.
It turns out that the real spiritual and cultural center of Russia is located in Kyiv, and not in Moscow, which is about 7 centuries younger than the capital of Ukraine. Thus, the Russian Federation is a unique country that has no control over its spiritual and historical capital. In my opinion, this is fair, since the modern Russian army has nothing to do with the army of Kievan Rus, which was one of the strongest in Europe. Russian soldiers behave like cowardly barbarians, which is also unworthy of the army of the state, which considers itself the successor of Kievan Rus. Whereas the daughters of Yaroslav the Wise (one of the most prominent rulers in the history of Kievan Rus) were more educated than European kings.
Considering all of the above, the desire to capture Kyiv fits into the ideological concept of "gathering Russian lands", which was used by all Russian princes, tsars and emperors to seize new lands since the 13th century. President Putin clearly wants to go down in history as a great ruler of Russia, such as Ivan "The Terrible" IV, Peter I and Catherine II. All of them significantly expanded the territory of Russia, and Putin, using false accusations against Ukraine of Nazism, came up with a pretext for the invasion under the guise of protecting the Russian-speaking population from genocide, also wanting to remain in the history of his country as a brilliant strategist and commander.
However, Russia does not deserve to own Kyiv. This city is used to being the center of one of the most developed European countries, while the Russian Federation is clearly not one of them. Kyiv will never want to be part of the "Russian world", which brings with it only destruction, death and lack of culture.
Strategic importance
The Ukrainian capital is also of great strategic importance. It is located on the banks of the largest river in Ukraine called the Dnieper. During the time of Kievan Rus, it was through Kyiv that the famous trade route "from the Varangians to the Greeks" passed, which connected the Baltic states and the Byzantine Empire.
Today Kyiv is the most important economic, political and military center of Ukraine. Of course, the capture of the capital of a neighboring state would greatly strengthen Russia's position in negotiations with Ukraine, but this did not happen, because Kyiv has long been a quality fortress. For example, the German Army was able to capture Kyiv only after 3 months of siege, having suffered huge losses in 1941.
Psychological factor
The capture of Kyiv, according to the plan of the Russian military-political leadership, was supposed to psychologically break the spirit of Ukrainian resistance to the invaders. For example, they could start spreading fake news that President Zelensky has fled or been assassinated. However, the Russian military failed to understand the psychology of the Ukrainians. They never understood that the city would be defended to the last Ukrainian soldier.
The fact is that in Russia almost all regions are completely subordinated to the capital Moscow. However, in Ukraine, each region is able to independently make decisions and defend itself. That is why, even if the Russian military managed to temporarily capture Kyiv and kill the military-political leadership of Ukraine, they would not be able to break the spirit of the Ukrainian people.
What do you think about President Putin’s motives for wanting to capture Kyiv? Let us know below.
Now read Konstant’s article on the history of confrontation between Russia and Ukraine here.
