Russia has unveiled a new school textbook describing its war with Ukraine as "saving peace".
The bizarre book, which will be rolled out for September 1, includes sections on how in 2014 the Kremlin illegally annexed the then-Ukraine controlled Crimea and tells how its soldiers were "saving peace".
It also slams western sanctions, saying their "main goal" is to "destabilise the situation inside Russia," and casts the country as a victim fighting for its very existence.
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Russia’s education minister, Sergey Kravtsov, who revealed the book for 17-year-olds at a press conference, said it is aimed at "conveying the aims [of the Ukraine offensive] to schoolchildren", which he said were "demilitarisation and denazification".
He added: "After the end of the special military operation, after our victory, we will further supplement this book."
The book claims the war was started by Vladimir Putin to "end the fighting started by the west" and dubs Ukraine as an "artificial state".
Russian presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky said the book presents "the state’s point of view" and appeared to boast that it rewrote history, saying: "We completely rewrote the sections ‘70s’, ‘80s’, ‘90s’ and ‘2000s’. A new section has been added from 2014 to the present, including the special military operation."
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Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, the Kremlin has tightened control of the content on the teaching of history in schools.
After Russia invaded Ukraine – a move it described as a "special military operation"- a new curriculum was introduced in Russian schools – to inspire kids to be patriotic – which called on youngsters to "bear arms in its defence" in dangerous times.
A former history teacher at an elite school near Moscow, who quit last April because he disagreed with the curriculum, described the new textbook as "total fiction".
The man, who wished only to be known as Aleksei, said: "They are rewriting both the past and the present."
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