Difficulties between Russia, Ukraine “temporary” – PM Medvedev

(Interfax – Gorki, June 22, 2015)

Russian Prime Minister Dmitriy Medvedev is convinced that Russians and Ukrainians remain close, and the current difficulties in relations are temporary.

On the anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War [USSR’s war against Nazi Germany and its allies on the Eastern Front in 1941-45] on Monday [22 June], the prime minister met the creators of the films Territory and The Battle for Sevastopol.

The producer of the Russian-Ukrainian film The Battle for Sevastopol, Natalya Mokritskaya, said that the Russian and the Ukrainian versions of the film were totally identical and that the Ukrainian side intended to put it forward for an Oscar.

“You touched upon an instance of cooperation with Ukraine, and it seems to me that this is really great. In the current conditions it is the best confirmation of the fact that we really are close, and even all the problems and difficulties of today, they are temporary after all,” Medvedev said.

“I am sure that what is forever is what made us into one people, and the huge calamities that we overcame together,” the head of government added.

In his view, the fact that Ukraine intended to put the film forward for an Oscar means that “there are quite sensible forces which realize that [our] history is a common one, and that it is not written to the bidding of a president or a prime minister, but is formed by the actions of millions of people, and cannot be turned inside out”.

“There will always be different views but [our] history is still common,” Medvedev stressed.

The film The Battle for Stalingrad tells the story of the heroic defence of Sevastopol and Odessa during the Great Patriotic War and of a famous woman sniper Lyudmyla Pavlychenko, played by Yuliya Peresild.