QUOTES-Extracts from Putin's speech on Ukraine

We are ready to show you what real decommunization means for Ukraine." ON UKRAINIAN STATEHOOD "Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood." ON BREAK-UP OF USSR "Russia assumed obligations to repay the entire Soviet debt in return for the newly independent states giving up part of their foreign assets.

Following are extracts from a televised speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin on Ukraine. ON ORIGINS OF MODERN UKRAINE

"Modern Ukraine was entirely created by Russia, more precisely, Bolshevik, communist Russia. This process began immediately after the revolution of 1917... "As a result of Bolshevik policy, Soviet Ukraine arose, which even today can with good reason be called 'Vladimir Ilyich Lenin's Ukraine'. He is its author and architect. This is fully confirmed by archive documents... And now grateful descendants have demolished monuments to Lenin in Ukraine. This is what they call decommunization. Do you want decommunization? Well, that suits us just fine. But it is unnecessary, as they say, to stop halfway. We are ready to show you what real decommunization means for Ukraine."

ON UKRAINIAN STATEHOOD "Ukraine never had a tradition of genuine statehood."

ON BREAK-UP OF USSR "Russia assumed obligations to repay the entire Soviet debt in return for the newly independent states giving up part of their foreign assets. In 1994, such agreements were reached with Ukraine, but they were not ratified by Ukraine...

"(Ukraine) preferred to act in such a way that in relations with Russia they had all the rights and advantages, but did not bear any obligations... "From the very first steps they began to build their statehood on the denial of everything that unites us. They tried to distort the consciousness, the historical memory of millions of people, entire generations living in Ukraine."

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