Ukrainian Ethnic Boundaries. Geopolitical Reflection

The descendants of Kievan Rus, Russian and Ukrainian ethnoses were participants in the expansion of the Russian empire in the Pacific direction. Special role in this fell to the Cossacks. From the point of view of the strong political center and centralized state apparatus, the Russian ethnos became dominant in relation to the Ukrainian one. In the Soviet era, Ukrainians were subjected to Russification. Modern Ukrainian borders do not include ethnically Ukrainian lands located on the territory of the Russian Federation, which, from the 1930’s were gradually russified. These include the Kuban, the southern part of Voronezh and Belgorod, Starodubshchina and the outskirts of Taganrog. In spatial rivalry between Ukraine and Russia, there are many models that can only be explained on the basis of geopolitics.