Ukraine ‘to be renamed’ after war

Russian state media has set out its vision for a “de-Nazified” Ukraine in which the country will be renamed.

A man waves a Ukrainian flag in front of the Swiss House of Parliament in Bern during a national demonstration against the war in Ukraine at the weekend. Picture: AFP

Russian state media has set out its vision for a “de-Nazified” Ukraine in which the country will be renamed and those who resist will ­either be executed or sentenced to forced labour.

An article entitled “What should Russia do with Ukraine?”, which was published by state news agency Ria Novosti, claimed that the majority of Ukrainians were Nazis and said they would be made to “suffer the inevitable hardships of a just war”.

The author, Timofei Sergeitsev, went on to assert that Ukraine was not a real country and was instead an “artificial anti-Russian construct”.

Sergeitsev, a columnist for Ria Novosti since 2014, previously worked as a political consultant for Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Kremlin Ukrainian president who was ousted by his own people in 2014.

He was also the screenwriter for the 2012 film Match about a football game in 1942 between German soldiers and local players in occupied Kyiv. The film was described by the Ukrainian film agency as “the most odious example of modern Russian propaganda directed against the Ukrainian people”.

In his column, published on Monday, Sergeitsev offers a number of prescriptions for the task of “de-Nazifying” Ukraine, including “ideological repression … and strict censorship, not only in the political sphere, but also in the sphere of culture and education”.

After the war, Russia would oversee its own “Nuremberg Trials”, in which those found to have collaborated with the “Nazi regime” would either be executed, imprisoned or sentenced to forced labour to “restore the destroyed infrastructure”.

Furthermore, the name of Ukraine would be eradicated and likely replaced with “Little Russia”, the name historically applied to Ukrainian territories under Russian imperial rule.

“In order to put the plan of ­de-Nazification of Ukraine into practice, Russia itself will have to finally part with pro-European and pro-Western illusions, realise itself as the last instance of protecting and preserving those values of historical Europe that deserve it and which the West ultimately abandoned, losing the fight for ­itself,” Sergeitsev wrote.

Moreover, the massacre in Bucha was written off in state media as a fake, aimed at discrediting President Vladimir Putin.

Russian officials said that the images from Bucha were staged and anyone spreading them could face up to 15 years in prison under a new law barring “disinformation” about the actions of the Russian army.

Mitya Aleshkovskiy, a journalist and charity worker, wrote: “When the war ends, the people of Russia will face the issue of the need for repentance. Without repentance, it is impossible to imagine any future for Russia.”

The Times