Putin: Before USSR, there was no Ukraine whatsoever

Before the creation of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR), there was no Ukraine in the history of mankind, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during a meeting with the Chairman of the Russian Constitutional Court Valery Zorkin, TASS reports.

Zorkin showed Putin a map that was drawn up in 17th century in France. The map marked the lands that were part of the Russian kingdom, Cossackia and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. There is no Ukraine on the map, Zorkin said.

"It was the Soviet authorities that set up Soviet Ukraine, this is a well known fact. Before that, there was no Ukraine in the history of mankind,” President Putin said.

Putin earlier said that modern-day Ukraine was entirely created by communist Russia after 1917. According to him, Vladimir Lenin and his associates did that in a cruel way by separating territories, without asking the opinion of the people living there.