When Russian President Vladimir Putin sat down to plot his invasion of Ukraine in February 2014, he didn’t have to start from scratch. Generations of Russian rulers have invaded Ukrainian lands to starve, deport and enslave the native populations, and Putin has drawn avidly from their playbooks. Ukraine’s oligarchs have been equally ruthless in despoiling the country, some even funding the very rebels who’d like to conquer it. Here’s a rundown of those who have done the most to devastate Ukraine.
Bohdan Khmelnytsky (1595—1627)
As leader of the Zaporizian cossacks, Khmelnytsky led his bandit army into a successful rebellion against the Polish …read more
Source: European Voice
