Steve Witkoff. why Russia attacked Ukraine. history of Ukraine. Russian propaganda

Recently, Mr Witkoff gave an interview to the notorious pro-russian blogger Tucker Carlson, in which he voiced three shameful manipulations about russia's war against Ukraine. And these manipulations are completely in line with the statements of the kremlin's criminals. We must explain them to citizens of other countries.

Manipulation 1 - about ‘referendums’ in the occupied (by russian troops) territories
Quote from Witkoff: "I think the biggest problem in this conflict is the so-called four regions: Donbas, Crimea, Luhansk... And there are two more. They are Russian-speaking. There were referendums in which the overwhelming majority of people said they wanted to be under Russian rule."
True: Witkoff is hopelessly confused about the number of Ukrainian regions that russia has declared its own: he says four, but then mentions three. In fact, there are six: the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, the city of Sevastopol (as a separate administrative unit), Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions. In the first two, the so-called ‘referendums’ on joining russia took place in 2014, and in the rest - in September 2022, in the midst of russia's brutal aggression. These ‘referendums’ were held under military occupation without independent observers. They could not be attended by a significant part of the population who fled the war to other regions or abroad.
According to residents of the part of the Kherson region that was liberated from occupation in 2022, the russian military forced them to vote under threat of reprisals, and the secrecy of the vote was not ensured. After all, the regional centre of Zaporizhzhia and the surrounding areas were never under russian control in the first place, and of course there were no ‘referendums’ there, but russia declared these territories its own.
It was the same in Crimea in 2014: first, russian troops entered the territory, taking control of all state bodies, and then, with weapons pointed at civilians, they forced them to vote in a racketeering referendum. In both cases, it was impossible to verify the actual results, as russia simply did not allow independent observers. But more importantly, in Crimea, Donbas, Mariupol, and Melitopol - in all regions, local residents protested against the occupation. In some places they were quickly suppressed, in others they went underground, into the so-called partisan protest movement.

Manipulation 2 - about the ‘encirclement’ of the Ukrainian army near Kursk
Quote from Witkoff: "Kursk is on Russian territory. The Russians have taken it back. And Ukrainians are trapped there. And the president does not want everyone to die. This is a significant situation on the battlefield that needs to be dealt with."
True: Vitkoff repeats the statement about the ‘encirclement’ of the Ukrainian Armed Forces near Kursk made by Trump in a phone call with putin on 13 March. Trump then asked putin to take pity on the Ukrainian military, who were caught in the ‘cauldron’. Trump's words then surprised even russian ‘military commanders’ and kremlin publications. Ukraine's armed forces did indeed retreat from the Kursk region, as russian troops were able to cut off important logistical routes. But this local success of the russians can hardly be called a cordon-off. Ukrainian troops overwhelmingly retreated in an organised manner, without significant losses. So who Trump and putin are going to save there remains a mystery.
Manipulation 3 - Ukraine is an artificial entity, a ‘gift from Khrushchev’ (former leader of the Soviet Union).
Vitkoff's quote: "There is a feeling in Russia that Ukraine is a fake country, that they are just putting these regions together in a kind of mosaic. And that's the root cause, I think, of this war, that Russia considers these five regions to be rightfully theirs since World War II. And this is something that no one wants to talk about. Well, I'm saying it out loud. I also think that Khrushchev kind of just made these regions part of Ukraine."
True: Here, Witkoff and Carlson have even surpassed russian propagandists. The territories of modern-day Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk and Kherson regions have been part of the Ukrainian People's Republic since the early 1920s, when the future general secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Khrushchev was still studying at the institute. 
Another thing is that putin did once claim that Ukraine, as an artificial state formation, was created by Vladimir Lenin. Perhaps Witkoff and Carlson have confused the Soviet leaders? This speaks volumes about the level of knowledge of the US special envoy who was entrusted with this topic. If we go even further back in history, the Ukrainian territories in the east that russia considers its own were first settled and developed into towns in the 16th century by Ukrainian Cossacks and Crimean Tatars. It was only in the eighteenth century that the russian Empire occupied these lands by force. Although it lost them repeatedly afterwards. 
Speaking generally about Ukraine, its history began with the foundation of the city of Kyiv (482). At the same time, moscow was founded in 1147, and the moscow principality appeared 300 years later than Kyivan Rus, and in 1721, Tsar Peter I stole part of the name of the Ukrainian state and proclaimed moscovia the russian Empire and all moscovites russians. It was from that time on that a long-term struggle against Ukrainians began, aimed at distorting history, culture and destroying Ukrainian identity. But apparently, Witkoff and Carlson failed to delve into the topic in depth.
Manipulation 4 - about russia's intentions towards the regions controlled by Kyiv
Quote from Witkoff: "Why do they need to absorb all of Ukraine? They don't need to absorb all of Ukraine. It was like the occupation of Gaza. Do you think the Israelis really want to occupy Gaza for the rest of their lives? They don't. They want stability on the land they don't want to deal with. But the Russians already have what they want. They have these five regions back. They have Crimea. So why do they need more?"
The truth is that when russia launched its full-scale invasion in 2022, it stated slightly different goals - the ‘demilitarisation and denazification’ of Ukraine. That is, in essence, the disarmament and dismantling of the Ukrainian state. And even after the offensive on Kyiv failed and military operations had to be concentrated in eastern Ukraine, russian officials did not abandon these goals. They keep popping up in propagandists' speeches. For example, ‘denazification and demilitarisation’ was mentioned in May 2024 by participants of the forum ‘What Victory We Need’, including maria zakharova, a representative of the russian Foreign Ministry. putin has repeatedly referred to other regions (essentially all those on the left bank of the Dnipro) as ‘historically russian lands’. 
russia's goal is absolutely clear to us and has not changed: the whole of Ukraine under kremlin control, the destruction of Ukrainian patriots, public and cultural figures, i.e. the restoration of the ‘great Soviet empire’. But for some reason, Donald Trump's administration continues to read russian fairy tales, and what is most sad is that they believe them. History has many facts that believing russians means disrespecting yourself and getting into big trouble in the future.
Based on materials from Stopfake.org