welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. right now, russia s war on ukraine is being waged from house to house, town to town in the eastern donbas. the strategy is simple destroy and then occupy the ruins. but the annihilation strategy isn t restricted to the battlefield. the kremlin is seeking to erase ukraine s history, culture and sense of identity. my guest today is the ukrainian raised, internationally renowned historian serhii plokhy. what s the best response to this weaponization of history? serhii plokhy, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. you are a harvard historian. you ve lived in the united states for a long time, and yet you were raised inside ukraine. so is it possible for you to bring a dispassionate historian s eye to what is happening in ukraine right now? or is it far too personal? that s what i am trying to do to bring this dispassionate analysis and help understanding of what is going on from the historical perspective. but it s extremely cl
and two teachers died in a mass shooting at an elementary school. the coffin of ten year old ameriejo garza was borne into the sacred heart catholic church, across the road from her school. those are the headlines. now on bbc news it s hardtalk with stephen sackur. welcome to hardtalk. i m stephen sackur. right now, russia s war on ukraine is being waged from house to house, town to town in the eastern donbas. the strategy is simple destroy and then occupy the ruins. but the annihilation strategy isn t restricted to the battlefield. the kremlin is seeking to erase ukraine s history, culture and sense of identity. my guest today is the ukrainian raised, internationally renowned historian serhii plokhy. what s the best response to this weaponization of history? serhii plokhy, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. you are a harvard historian. you ve lived in the united states for a long time, and yet you were raised inside ukraine. so is it possible for you to bring a
to the battlefield. the kremlin is seeking to erase ukraine s history, culture and sense of identity. my guest today is the ukrainian raised, internationally renowned historian serhii plokhy. what s the best response to this weaponization of history? serhii plokhy, welcome to hardtalk. thank you for having me. you are a harvard historian. you ve lived in the united states for a long time, and yet you were raised inside ukraine. so is it possible for you to bring a dispassionate historian s eye to what is happening in ukraine right now? or is it far too personal? that s what i am trying to do to bring this dispassionate analysis and help understanding of what is going on from the historical perspective. but it s extremely close to home in personal terms, and in terms also of the kind of history that i study, and studied and wrote about. never i thought that it would be at the very centre of the major international crisis, the biggest and the most horrible war that we have
was under the jurisdiction of constantinople until late 17th century. and then we see the takeover of ukraine by moscow muscovite state, then the russian empire, and switching and switching centre toward saint petersburg first and then to moscow. what you see happening now is really a major, major cracks appearing in this orthodox unity or traditional unity of the last few centuries, to a degree that the leader of the ukrainian orthodox church under the moscow patriarchate issues an appeal to putin, talking about the sin of gain. so it s about really turning this argument about brotherly peoples and brotherly nations. brother against brother, yeah. ..in a very different way. so this war that was launched under the pretext of defending russian culture and russian
the orthodox church was under the jurisdiction of constantinople until late 17th century. and then we see the takeover of ukraine by moscow muscovite state, then the russian empire, and switching and switching centre toward saint petersburg first and then to moscow. what you see happening now is really a major, major cracks appearing in this 0rthodox unity or traditional unity of the last few centuries, to a degree that the leader of the ukrainian orthodox church under the moscow patriarchate issues an appeal to putin, talking about the sin of gain. so it s about really turning this argument about brotherly peoples and brotherly nations. brother against brother, yeah. ..in a very different way. so this war that was launched