The Russian Empire, besides containing Russians, ruled over millions of Ukrainians, Poles and Belarusians, who had their own national identities, traditions and religions. Towards Ukrainians and Belarusians, the Slavophiles developed the view that they were part of the same "Great Russian" nation, Belarusians being the "White Russians" and Ukrainians "Little Russians". Slavophile thinkers such as Mikhail Katkov believed that both nations should be ruled under Russian leadership and were an essential part of the Russian state.[7] At the same time, they denied the separate cultural identity of Ukrainian and Belarusian people,[7] believing their national as well as language and literary aspirations were a result of "Polish intrigue" to separate them from Russians.[8] Other Slavophiles, like Ivan Aksakov, recognized the right of Ukrainians to use the Ukrainian language but saw it as completely unnecessary and harmful.[9] Aksakov, however, did see some practical use for the "Malorussian" language: it would be beneficial in the struggle against the "Polish civilizational element in the western provinces".[7]

Japan opposes Russian withdrawal from World War II peace treaty talks over sanctions

A senior foreign correspondent for the Russian TV station Channel One has told a news conference in Paris she resigned from her post earlier this month in opposition to the war in Ukraine.

Zhanna Agalakova, who was a news presenter before taking up postings in Paris and New York, said she had long been troubled by the "propaganda" put out by news media in Russia, but that the war was a "red line" she could not cross.

When the war broke out she said there was "no question" of continuing and calling it an operation for peace.

"It was war," she said.

"I know they will accuse me of being a spy. But no-one paid me. I work for no-one except my country. I want my people to be able to see propaganda for what it is; to seek other sources of information; to stop being turned into zombies."

Agalakova, who began her career in 1991 for the Russian news agency Novosti, added: "We've got to a situation where, in the media, we only get one point of view, the Kremlin's."

Agalakova said that as a news anchor in the early 2000s, she "felt already heavy pressure. Every day we had to show this one person... [And then] he became our second president. It was we [journalists] who set him up. We forged his image".

But she said that in New York in 2013 - leading up to the first Ukrainian war - she was under constant pressure to produce only bad news about the US.

"I never told lies. But that is how propaganda works. You take facts that are true, you arrange them, and you deliver a great big lie," she said.

"Each fact is true, but taken together, it's propaganda."

"I never told lies. But that is how propaganda works. You take facts that are true, you arrange them, and you deliver a great big lie," she said.

"Each fact is true, but taken together, it's propaganda."

Russian investigators said Tuesday they had launched a criminal case against a popular journalist for alleging that Moscow's army deliberately shelled a maternity hospital in Ukraine's embattled city of Mariupol.

Alexander Nevzorov is the first prominent political reporter and commentator to be probed for spreading "false" information about the Russian army under new legislation introduced after President Vladimir Putin sent troops to Ukraine on February 24.