It’s symbolic that Alaska has been chosen as the location for Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s meeting on Friday to discuss Ukraine giving up occupied territory to Russia in the name of “peace.” In 1867, the U.S. bought Alaska from Russia, then a colony of the Tsar, for a measly $7.2 million (around $150 million today). It’s as if whoever selected the location is suggesting there’s nothing particularly dramatic for lines on maps to be redrawn, that you can swap parts of countries as if they were mere real estate.

But this ignores something vital—people. Russia’s occupation of eastern parts of Ukraine isn’t just a land-grab. Its aim is to wipe out independent Ukrainian identity; to re-define who the local people think and feel they are at the barrel of a gun. It’s a vast project of

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