If you look at the history of this area there has never really been a Ukraine. The entire region of the Grand Duchy and western Russia was littered with Viking outposts and one was Kiev. The Vikings had a northern route to Constantinople using the Russian river systems of the Don and the Volga into the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Western Ukraine then became part of the Grand Duchy while eastern Ukraine was filled with different tribes (Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Huns), mostly nomadic. These are the tribes of the Steppes that tortured Rome for centuries. The area of the Caucuses between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea was Greek and then Islamic with the Mongols Golden Horde ruling it all at one point.

If you look at the history of this area there has never really been a Ukraine. The entire region of the Grand Duchy and western Russia was littered with Viking outposts and one was Kiev. The Vikings had a northern route to Constantinople using the Russian river systems of the Don and the Volga into the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Western Ukraine then became part of the Grand Duchy while eastern Ukraine was filled with different tribes (Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Huns), mostly nomadic. The area of the Caucuses between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea was Greek and then Islamic with the Mongols Golden Horde ruling it all at one point.

If you look at the history of this area there has never really been a Ukraine. The entire region of the Grand Duchy and western Russia was littered with Viking outposts and one was Kiev. The Vikings had a northern route to Constantinople using the Russian river systems of the Don and the Volga into the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. Western Ukraine then became part of the Grand Duchy while eastern Ukraine was filled with different tribes, mostl;y nomadic. The area of the Caucuses between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea was Greek and then Islamic with the Mongols Golden Horde ruling it all at one point.