Kyiv, Ukraine (CNN)The morning after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested that Ukraine had no right to exist as an independent state, many in the country's capital, Kyiv, appeared glad to see the world waking up to a reality they've been living for years.

"It's been like this for 15 years. He has always been lying. This is not diplomacy, it's just idiocy," Kyiv resident Nina Vasylenko told CNN.
Waiting for a bus with her friend and former classmate Ala Bovtun, Vasylenko, who said she was "60+" years old, said the fact Putin had officially recognized two breakaway territories in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine as independent makes no difference.
"The Russian army was there a long time ago," she said.

"Putin does not understand what democracy and diplomacy are, his idea is: 'This is mine and I have to take it.' He wants to take Ukraine, that's what he says -- 'My belle,'" Bovtun said, referring to Putin's crude remark about Ukraine last week.
"But I think that most European countries and the US already knew what was going on," she added. "They didn't want to get into a conflict with Russia, they just wanted to get the oil and gas. The slogans about justice, they are just slogans."

https://www.cnn.com/2022/02/22/europe/ukraine-putin-reaction-kyiv-intl/index.html