Putin Claims Western Lands Given to Ukraine by Stalin Could Eventually Return to Poland, Hungary and Romania.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has claimed that several western territories currently within Ukraine were transferred to the country by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin after the Second World War, arguing that the regions were incorporated into Ukraine only because they were part of a single Soviet state.
Speaking on the issue of Ukraine’s borders, Putin said that “in the western part of Ukraine, there are lands that Stalin gifted to Ukraine after WW2.” He added that the transfer took place “within the framework of a single state,” referring to the former Soviet Union.
According to Putin, Stalin did not anticipate that the Soviet Union would eventually collapse and that independent states would emerge from its republics. “Apparently, it never occurred to him that a situation like today’s could arise,” Putin said.
The Russian leader also predicted that Ukraine could eventually lose those western territories. He argued that lands which historically belonged to Poland, Hungary, and Romania would one day return to those countries, saying, “What belonged to Poland, Hungary, and Romania will eventually, historically, return to its place.”
Putin further asserted that Russia had played a central role in guaranteeing Ukraine’s territorial integrity following the dissolution of the Soviet Union. “There was only one guarantor of Ukraine’s territorial integrity, and that was Russia,” he said, while criticizing Kyiv’s decision to treat Moscow as an adversary.