CBC News misrepresents President Putin.

A February 20, 2025, CBC News article, "Trump's talk about Canada parrots Putin's claims on Ukraine," parrots the claim, as do commentators such as Timothy Snyder at Yale University, John Feffer, Matt Duss, Maria Popova at McGill University, and others, including CBC reporter Evan Dyer, that in 2021, President Vladimir Putin considered 1991 Ukraine part of Russia, which, with the exception of Crimea which had voted in a referendum on March 16, 2014, to join the Russian Federation, he did not.

Nor did Mr. Putin assert, as the article claims, that "the Ukrainian people, in their hearts, aspired to be part of Mother Russia, but their voices were censored"; or declare that his words referred to these "hearts" and "Mother Russia" when he wrote: "And there are millions of such people. But they are not allowed to raise their heads." (emphasis added)

In the first third or so of his July 12, 2021 essay, "On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians," quoted misleadingly in the CBC article referenced above, Mr. Putin explains the historical unity of – meaning shared history and familial and cultural ties between – the Russian and Ukrainian people.

Then, beginning in paragraphs 49 and 50, which end with the word "Respect!", President Putin explains his view of the political and economic relationship between the Russian and Ukrainian states, which emphatically is not that Ukraine is a part of Russia.

He ends the article with a recounting of the history of the 8-year Donbas civil war, which began in February, 2014 with the violent U.S.-backed coup that drove Ukraine's democratically elected president, Viktor Yanukovych, from office and out of the country, followed by a violent attack in Odessa on May 2, 2014, by Ukrainian ultranationalist extremists in which were killed dozens of Russian-speaking Ukrainians peacefully protesting the stated intention of the right-wing coup government to repeal a regional languages law, signed on August 8, 2012, by Mr. Yanukovych, that granted the Russian language official status in regions of Ukraine where Russian-speakers disproportionately live, most notably the Donbas – similar accommodations exist in countries like Belgium, Switzerland, Canada, and others, where the language rights of linguistic minorities are protected.

The regional languages law Mr. Yanukovych signed in 2012 applied also to at least nine other languages in addition to Russian.

All of the events in the history Mr. Putin recounts in this paper, including agreeing with France, Germany, and Ukraine in September, 2014 and February, 2015 the Minsk accords (approved unanimously by the UN Security Council on February 17, 2015) and additional diplomatic efforts by the Russian state to end the Donbas civil war, are easily verifiable by anyone who knows how to use Google to find articles that reported them in mainstream news outlets at the time that they occurred.

Here are Mr. Putin's words, misleadingly quoted in the CBC News article referenced above, in their proper context (emphasis added):

Inside the USSR, borders between republics were never seen as state borders; they were nominal within a single country, which, while featuring all the attributes of a federation, was highly centralized … But in 1991, all those territories, and, which is more important, people, found themselves abroad overnight, taken away, this time indeed, from their historical motherland.

What can be said to this? Things change: countries and communities are no exception. Of course, some part of a people in the process of its development, influenced by a number of reasons and historical circumstances, can become aware of itself as a separate nation at a certain moment. How should we treat that? There is only one answer: with respect!

You want to establish a state of your own: you are welcome! But what are the terms?[…]

The Russian Federation recognized the new geopolitical realities: and not only recognized, but, indeed, did a lot for Ukraine to establish itself as an independent country. […]

Ukraine and Russia have developed as a single economic system over decades and centuries. The profound cooperation we had 30 years ago is an example for the European Union to look up to. We are natural complementary economic partners. Such a close relationship can strengthen competitive advantages, increasing the potential of both countries. […]

I recall that long ago, well before 2014, the U.S. and EU countries systematically and consistently pushed Ukraine to curtail and limit economic cooperation with Russia. We, as the largest trade and economic partner of Ukraine, suggested discussing the emerging problems in the Ukraine-Russia-EU format. But every time we were told that Russia had nothing to do with it and that the issue concerned only the EU and Ukraine. De facto Western countries rejected Russia's repeated calls for dialogue.

Step by step, Ukraine was dragged into a dangerous geopolitical game aimed at turning Ukraine into a barrier between Europe and Russia, a springboard against Russia. Inevitably, there came a time when the concept of "Ukraine is not Russia" was no longer an option. There was a need for the "anti-Russia" concept which we will never accept. [ … ]

This is what is actually happening. First of all, we are facing the creation of a climate of fear in Ukrainian society, aggressive rhetoric, indulging neo-Nazis and militarising the country. Along with that we are witnessing not just complete dependence but direct external control, including the supervision of the Ukrainian authorities, security services and armed forces by foreign advisers, military "development" of the territory of Ukraine and deployment of NATO infrastructure. It is no coincidence that the aforementioned flagrant law on "indigenous peoples" ["Only those who constitute an ethnic minority and do not have their own state entity outside Ukraine are recognized as indigenous."] was adopted under the cover of large-scale NATO exercises in Ukraine. [ … ]

The Western authors of the anti-Russia project set up the Ukrainian political system in such a way that presidents, members of parliament and ministers would change but the attitude of separation from and enmity with Russia would remain. Reaching peace was the main election slogan of the incumbent president [Volodymyr Zelenskyy]. He came to power with this [on July 21, 2019]. The promises turned out to be lies. Nothing has changed. And in some ways the situation in Ukraine and around Donbas has even degenerated.

In the anti-Russia project, there is no place either for a sovereign Ukraine or for the political forces that are trying to defend its real independence. Those who talk about reconciliation in Ukrainian society, about dialogue, about finding a way out of the current impasse are labelled as "pro-Russian" agents.

Again, for many people in Ukraine, the anti-Russia project is simply unacceptable. And there are millions of such people. But they are not allowed to raise their heads. They have had their legal opportunity to defend their point of view in fact taken away from them. They are intimidated, driven underground. Not only are they persecuted for their convictions, for the spoken word, for the open expression of their position, but they are also killed. Murderers, as a rule, go unpunished.

See: "The War in Ukraine Was Provoked–and Why That Matters to Achieve Peace" by Columbia University Professor Jeffrey D. Sachs, May 23, 2023, for more on the actual root and proximate causes of Russia's military intervention in Ukraine.

See Glenn Diesen's video, "How NATO Dismantled Ukraine's Sovereignty & Democracy," for documentation of the "not just complete dependence but direct external control" imposed on Ukraine by the West mentioned in the excerpt from Mr. Putin's essay above.