Sorry, Wayne, I just now realised that the Brittanica article you quote is written by Anne Applebaum, a neo-conservative propagandist who writes for the Atlantic and graduated from LSE (a factory for anti-Russian neocons). I refuse categorically to accept anything that woman writes as true.

I started to suspect when I read that BS about "Ukrainian identity". Once I saw the by-line, it all made sense. You are being propagandised, Wayne.