The ENTIRE History of Ukraine in 12 Minutes | The Nation Empires Said Didn't Exist

In 2019, Ukraine elected a comedian who had played its president on television. Three years later, the largest army in Europe was marching on his capital. He stayed. For most of the last eight hundred years, Ukraine was ruled by someone else: Mongols, Lithuanians, Poles, Austrians and Russians. And again and again, its rulers said the same thing: that the people living there were not really a separate nation. In 1863, a Russian minister wrote that the Ukrainian language never existed and never could. This is the complete history of Ukraine: Scythian gold, Kyivan Rus and the baptism of 988, Anna of Kyiv who became Queen of France, the Mongol destruction of Kyiv, the Cossacks and the Zaporizhian Sich, Bohdan Khmelnytsky, Mazepa and Poltava, Taras Shevchenko, the ban on the Ukrainian language, the folk song that became Carol of the Bells, the Holodomor, Babyn Yar and the Second World War, Chernobyl, independence in 1991, the nuclear arsenal Ukraine gave up, the Orange Revolution, the Maidan, Crimea and the Donbas, and the full-scale invasion of 2022. Eight hundred years of being told it doesn't exist, and the answer. CHAPTERS 0:00 The comedian who stayed 1:05 The steppe 1:27 Kyivan Rus 2:13 The Mongols 2:37 The Cossacks 3:16 Khmelnytsky's uprising 3:37 Mazepa and Poltava 4:09 "Little Russia" 4:26 Taras Shevchenko 4:49 The language ban 5:18 1917 and independence 5:35 The song that became Carol of the Bells 5:56 The Holodomor 6:31 The Second World War 7:20 Soviet Ukraine and Crimea 7:39 Chernobyl 8:09 Independence, 1991 8:23 The nuclear bargain 8:38 The hard 1990s 8:53 The Orange Revolution 9:09 The Maidan 9:31 Crimea and the Donbas 9:59 The comedian president and the invasion 10:53 The answer 11:21 Thanks for watching Tell us in the comments — which part of Ukraine's story surprised you most? This documentary is based on historical sources and academic research, and uses illustrated reconstructions to bring the story to life. Some imagery is AI-assisted. #Ukraine #UkrainianHistory #HistoryOfUkraine #Kyiv #Cossacks #KyivanRus #Holodomor #Chernobyl #EuropeanHistory #WorldHistory #History #Documentary #HistoryDocumentary