Pereiaslav, the treaty that started modern Russo-Ukrainian history
In late April 2024, in central Kyiv, heavy cranes began dismantling a sculpture erected to commemorate 17th-century Pereiaslav Treaty between the Cossacks and Muscovites, symbolically closing a chapter of a shared history. It was the very same agreement lauded by Russian President Vladimir Putin as supposed evidence of Ukraine's historical subservience to Moscow in a piece he penned months before launching the full-scale invasion. What is the story behind the Pereiaslav Treaty, and why does it carry such a different meaning for both nations? In January 1654, in the town of Pereiaslav in modern...