Russia-Ukraine conflict ensured unified national identity among Ukrainians: Lieven

Kolkata: Professor Dominic Lieven, a scholar of empire and imperialism, said that the Russia-Ukraine conflict has ensured that there is going to be a powerful sense of unified Ukrainian national identity in the foreseeable future.

He claimed that the conflict provided the Ukrainians with a unified idea of the national independence struggle against a common enemy.

"In the foreseeable future, there is going to be a powerful sense of unified Ukrainian national identity," Lieven said, delivering the fourth Krishna Bose lecture on 'Russia and Ukraine: Past Present and Future' at the Netaji Bhavan here on Tuesday.

Speaking at the function held on the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, he said that there remains a possibility of a ceasefire roughly along the lines that Russia and Ukraine are in now if the conflict continues without any decisive leverage for any of the two countries.

Lieven, a former professor of Russian Government at the London School of Economics and Political Science, said that a frozen conflict between the two countries may last for years.

Sugata Bose and Sumantra Bose, the grandnephews of Netaji, conducted the session, which was attended by many admirers and followers of the leader.