A new school textbook in Russia is teaching children that Moscow was “forced” to invade Ukraine as it likens the conflict to the Soviet Union’s battle against Nazi Germany in World War II.
The three-volume “Military History of Russia” was presented in Moscow on Monday, with a chapter in the book accusing NATO of transforming Ukraine into an “aggressive anti-Russian bridgehead” in 2014, forcing the Kremlin to take Crimea and later wage war on Kyiv.
The history book, which is meant for children ages 15 and older, was edited by Vladimir Medinsky, a Putin aide who headed the failed peace talks in 2022 and who has co-authored Russia’s main history textbooks.
Medinsky’s books tell a completely revised interpretation of Russian history that echoes Putin’s vision for the country, with the books also blaming the West for the war in Ukraine.
Ivan Basik, a military historian affiliated with the Russian army, touted the new book’s version of events while speaking at a TASS news conference.
“The most important task was to explain to the younger generation, to schoolchildren, the forced nature of the ‘Special Military Operation’ carried out by the Russian Federation,” he said, referencing the name Putin uses to describe the invasion.
Kyiv has slammed the new textbook as yet another attempt to propagandize children about the ongoing war, which is approaching its third year.
The textbook is only the latest being presented in Russian schools attempting to justify the war, with history books introduced since the war began claiming “Ukraine is a neo-Nazi state” and that “Russia is a country of heroes.”
Kyiv has maintained that Russia’s repeated invasions are nothing more than unprovoked attacks being waged merely for Moscow to gain territory at the cost of hundreds of thousands of lives.
Gen. Keith Kellogg, President Trump’s Ukraine envoy, estimated that Russia has suffered more than 800,000 casualties among its ranks over its nearly three-year-long full-scale invasion.
Kellogg suggested on Friday that Trump would levy new economic pressures on Russia to force Putin to negotiate an end to the war and fulfill the US president’s campaign promise to bring fighting in Ukraine to a close.
With Post wires.
