Russian President Vladimir Putin has answered a question from UNIAN correspondent Roman Tsymbaliuk who says that he has no problem working in Russia but if Ukrainian tanks had been in Kuban, Russia would have also changed its attitude toward Ukraine.
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"Do you mean the [T-]72nd or the [T-]34th models?" Putin asked Tsymbaliuk at an annual press conference on Thursday.
The T-72 is a family of Soviet main battle tanks that first entered production in 1971. The T-34 is a Soviet medium tank, first introduced in 1940.
"The T-64 is our main battle tank. It is manufactured in the city of Kharkiv," Tsymbaliuk answered.
"This is also a Soviet-made one," Putin responded.
"Well, you also said you came from the Soviet Union," the Ukrainian journalist told the Russian president.
On Thursday, December 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin is giving an annual news conference.
*** Kuban is a geographic region of southern Russia surrounding the Kuban River, on the Black Sea between the Don Steppe, the Volga Delta and the Caucasus, and separated from the Crimean Peninsula to the west by the Kerch Strait. Russia's Krasnodar Krai is often referred to as "Kuban," both officially and unofficially.
The Ukrainians in Kuban constitute a national minority, and the region as a whole shares many linguistic, cultural and historic ties with Ukraine.
Ukrainians first settled in the Kuban region in 1792. Until the middle of the 20th century, the majority of the population there identified themselves as Ukrainians.
