Mon Jan 27 22:02:47 IST 2025: ## New Russian Textbook Presents War in Ukraine as Necessary Response to Western Aggression
**Moscow** – A new Russian school textbook, “Military History of Russia,” portrays the ongoing war in Ukraine as a necessary response to Western aggression and NATO expansion, sparking immediate controversy. The three-volume set, intended for 15-year-olds and older, was presented in Moscow on Monday and edited by Vladimir Medinsky, a close advisor to President Vladimir Putin.
The textbook, which frames the conflict as a continuation of Russia’s fight against Nazism, claims Russia was forced to intervene in Ukraine due to years of ignored security concerns and what it describes as Western-backed regime change in 2014. It highlights Russian military actions, portraying them as heroic and necessary, and even draws parallels to Soviet military tactics during World War II.
The Kremlin’s narrative, presented in a chapter titled “Professionalism, indomitability and courage: Russian troops in the Special Military Operation,” asserts that Western actions, including NATO expansion and the alleged Western-backed ouster of a pro-Russian Ukrainian president, made the war inevitable. This assertion is vehemently denied by both NATO and Ukraine.
Ivan Basik, a military historian affiliated with the Russian army, stated at a TASS news conference that the textbook’s primary goal is to explain to young Russians the supposedly “forced nature” of the “special military operation.”
The Ukrainian government is expected to denounce the textbook as propaganda. The West, too, has consistently condemned the invasion as an unprovoked act of aggression and a land grab. The differing narratives highlight the deep chasm between Russia’s justification for the war and the international consensus viewing it as a violation of Ukraine’s sovereignty.
First Piper 