The Day of Ukrainian Statehood and The Day of the Baptism of Kyivan Rus\u2013Ukraine serve as a reminder that our statehood tradition dates back more than a millennium, and its origins are inextricably connected with Crimea. It was in Chersonesos (Korsun), currently located in the temporarily occupied Crimea, where, according to the chronicle tradition, Prince Volodymyr the Great was baptized before Christianizing the people of Kyiv in the Dnipro River.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Russian occupation of the peninsula is an attempt by the aggressor to appropriate our history. Crimea is the place where the event that shaped the civilizational choice of Kyivan Rus took place, and its de-occupation is essential not only for restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity, but also for restoring historical justice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This idea of statehood and a European orientation was carried through the centuries by prominent statesmen. During the Mongol invasion, King Danylo Romanovych united a significant part of the Rus lands within the Kingdom of Galicia-Volhynia (the Kingdom of Rus) and became one of the first rulers of Rus to consistently strive to organize resistance against Mongol expansion. In 1253, he received the royal crown from a papal legate, achieving international recognition for his state. During the Cossack era, Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky revived Ukrainian statehood by establishing the Ukrainian Cossack state, the Hetmanate, and in his geopolitical struggle, relied, among other things, on alliances with the Crimean Khanate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When the Tsardom of Muscovy began a systematic assault on the rights and autonomy of the Hetmanate, Hetman Ivan Mazepa took an immense risk and opposed the Tsar, demonstrating that an alliance with Moscow leads to the loss of Ukrainian statehood. His successor, Pylyp Orlyk, enshrined the Ukrainian people’s aspiration for freedom and self-governance in the Constitution of 1710 \u2013 the first Ukrainian Constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the early 20th century, Mykhailo Hrushevsky led the Ukrainian Central Rada, which proclaimed the independence of the Ukrainian People’s Republic (UPR) through its Fourth Universal. Around the same time, Colonel Petro Bolbochan executed a brilliant Crimean campaign, liberating a significant part of Crimea from the Bolsheviks and clearly demonstrating that the security of Ukraine is inconceivable without the Ukrainian peninsula.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the same time, the Crimean Tatar people, led by Noman \u00c7elebicihan, asserted Crimea’s right to its own democratic future. As the head of the first national government of the Crimean People’s Republic, he became a symbol of the Crimean Tatars’ struggle for freedom, dignity, and self-determination. His tragic death at the hands of the Bolsheviks was one of the earliest indications that Russian imperialism was equally hostile to both Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar statehood traditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
All of these prominent figures \u2013 from Volodymyr the Great, King Danylo, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Ivan Mazepa, Pylyp Orlyk, Mykhailo Hrushevsky, and Petro Bolbochan to Noman \u00c7elebicihan \u2013 are links in the same unbroken chain of the Ukrainian struggle for freedom, statehood, and unity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Today, Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars stand united in continuing this struggle. By destroying the Russian occupiers, the Defense Forces of Ukraine bring closer the day when the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar flags will once again fly over the entirety of a free Crimea and the whole sovereign territory of Ukraine.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":89362,"template":"","publication-type":[],"class_list":["post-89365","press-center","type-press-center","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n