A new school textbook designed for students aged 15 and older has sparked controversy by framing Russia's war in Ukraine as a continuation of the Soviet fight against Nazi Germany.
The three-volume series, titled Military History of Russia, was presented in Moscow on Monday and claims that Russia was "forced" to send troops into Ukraine, Reuters reported.
Edited by Vladimir Medinsky, a close aide to President Vladimir Putin and co-author of Russia's main history textbook, the book explains the Kremlin's narrative for the war, describing it as a necessary response to Western and NATO actions.
The textbook asserts that NATO's expansion and the 2014 removal of Ukraine's pro-Russian president transformed Ukraine into an "aggressive anti-Russian bridgehead."
In a chapter titled Professionalism, Indomitability, and Courage: Russian Troops in the Special Military Operation, the textbook highlights what it calls acts of heroism by Russian soldiers and compares modern military tactics to those used by the Soviet army during World War II.
"The most important task was to explain to the younger generation, to schoolchildren, the forced nature of the special military operation carried out by the Russian Federation," Ivan Basik, a military historian affiliated with the Russian army, stated during a TASS news conference.
While the Kremlin portrays the conflict as part of a larger struggle against Western attempts to weaken Russia, Ukraine and its allies have condemned the war as an unprovoked act of aggression aimed at seizing territory.
Ukrainian leadership is expected to dismiss the book as propaganda. NATO and Ukraine have consistently denied posing any threat to Russia.
Originally published on Latin Times
