"It Existed for a Short Time and Disappeared from the Map": Medvedev on Ukraine

The Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev, has written on his Telegram channel that Ukraine, as a country, does not actually exist. He stated that Kyiv claims territories that were previously part of the Russian Empire. In this context, Medvedev commented on the words of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky concerning plans to return to the borders of 1991.

“The Ukrainian side constantly states that the condition for negotiations is their withdrawal from some boundaries of 1991. These are the borders of Russia's regions and, at one time, provinces of the Russian Empire, not the mythical Ukraine. Ukraine is the land of Sannikov founded by Lenin. It existed for a short time and disappeared from the map. Such land does not exist, regardless of what they think in the West and in occupied Russian Kyiv,” wrote Medvedev.

The land of Sannikov is an island that was allegedly located in the Arctic Ocean, first mentioned in the early 19th century by Russian merchant and explorer Yakov Sannikov. Later, several explorers also claimed to have seen this island, but expeditions organized during the Soviet era never confirmed its existence.