Brian Whitmore: Today, Ukraine is debunking Putin’s myths

Today, Ukrainians debunk all the myths disseminated in recent decades by the Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Brian Whitmore, Professor at the University of Texas-Arlington, expressed this idea at the 15^th annual Kyiv Security Forum, established by the Arseniy Yatsenyuk’s “Open Ukraine” Foundation.

“In recent decades, Putin has been telling a sort of a parallel story. That the world becomes more dangerous, that it needs patriarchal dictatorial regimes and that Ukraine does not exist. He tells the story that sovereignty of small states depends on sovereignty of large ones. That Russia, the United States, and China possess their subjective identity whereas small countries do not. And what do Ukrainians do? They now refute all these myths. They debunk them,” he emphasized.

Prof Whitmore added that another myth that Russia imposes on others today, and that Ukraine successfully debunks, is that democracy has lost its power.

“In my country, I checked the latest public opinion polls: only 52% believe that it is important to live in a democracy. For my generation, this percentage was 90. And now Ukraine demonstrates that democracy is worth fighting for and dying for,” he said.

In addition, according to Professor, through history studies it becomes obvious that Ukraine has always been a European country, and quite different and separate from Russia.

“We have greatly underestimated Ukraine. When lecturing to my students, I tell them how very lucky they are. When I studied the history of this region, we were taught totally different facts,” he said.

Noteworthy, the 15^th annual Kyiv security forum “For Our and Your Freedom/ Fighting for NATO” will be held on May 25-26, 2023, with the participation of well-known international figures. In particular, at the Forum, the KSF Security Council will be established and a policy document will be adopted with recommendations for the NATO summit in Vilnius to be held this July.