The Early History of Kiev

The organizing center of Kievan Rus, the first great Slavic state, Kiev arose in the ninth century as a commercial hub on the trade routes connecting Europe, the Eastern Christian empire known as Byzantium with its capital at Constantinople, the glorious Abassid Moslem empire ruled from Baghdad, and the Khazar state of the lower Volga and northern Caucasus. At its zenith in the eleventh century, Kiev was the ruling center of the largest political entity in medieval Europe and one of the world's most splendid cities. Its population for the year 1200 has been estimated at fifty thousand or more. By comparison, Paris had about fifty thousand inhabitants at that time, while London had an estimated population of thirty thousand.

Slavic Tribes in VII - IX Century

Check the map ... Donbas and Crimea are not part of East Slavic people but are connected to the Turkic people.

Russia as Ukraine's 'Other': Identity and Geopolitics

'Sapere aude'