Stepashin called the annexation of Western Ukraine to the USSR a big mistake

The annexation of western Ukraine to the USSR under Joseph Stalin turned out to have big negative consequences. This was stated by former Russian Prime Minister Sergei Stepashin on February 4 at an event in honor of the 80th anniversary of the Yalta Conference in Livadia Palace.

"I <...> want to say that the biggest mistake was made by Stalin. This is the annexation of Western Ukraine. We did not have time to create a new line of defense. <...> The second thing is that we got a front. All the so-called Western Ukrainians, 90 percent (of them. - Editor's note), they were Polizei, fought against us," TASS quoted him as saying.

At the same time, according to Stepashin, the Soviet leadership's miscalculation led to the fact that Nazi ideas spread from the western territories of Ukraine to the entire country.

Earlier, on January 21, Russian President Vladimir Putin said during talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping that the revival of Nazism was inadmissible and urged to carefully preserve the historical truth.