I have recently heard a very bold statement that for the past 5 centuries (maybe more), Russia has only won wars when when it fought side by side with Ukraine. And the only war it won without Ukraine was the 2008 war with Georgia.
The implication here obviously is that the Ukrainians are good at war. So good in fact, that Russians always needed them to win or at least to assist a victory.
May I ask a historian to corroborate or or debunk that?
Thank you in advance!
The statement is indeed very bold and incorrect. So incorrect in fact it can be probably written off as another hasty controversial opinion on a social network, but it's probably better to explain why it's incorrect to approach such topics from so simple points of view.
Like very single other statement that concerns huge amount of time (centuries or millenia) and makes very decisive and broad conclusions, it can never rise above "partially kind of true, but actually" and will (like in this case) land firmly into the "complete nonsence".
Why this statement is false can be answered in three ways.
First, it takes a period of 500 years and unfiromly mentions Russian and Ukrainian identities, probably also implying borders and people inhabiting today's borders of said countries. Why 500 years specifically? Why not 550? Why not 600? If we try to find at least some logic here, then it probably tries to tie it up to the nations' identity being formed around this time, but it's hard to pinpoint exact years (and most likely impossible, it was a long, lengthy process).
Second, at least parts of Ukraine were under direct control of Russia since second half of 17th century and remained there until collapse of Russian Empire. If we consider recruits, mercenaries and statesmen coming from Ukrainian territories under Russian governance, then it is indeed impossible to say that Russia has won any significant wars without Ukraine's assistance, because it's most likely at least some Ukrainian people were involved in every conflict. Moreover, many Ukrainians came to Russia during Time of Troubles in early 17th century and were recruited/deserted to Russian side and stayed there, and there surely are much earlier examples of at least single personalities from what is today's Ukraine fighting for Russia. The same can be formulated as "USA has never won any significant wars without Indian help", which is technically probably correct, because there will certainly be some allied tribes, recruits or servicemen of Native American origins, but it's still very weird statement.
Third, if we take this statement as meaning direct help from state of Ukraine and not Ukrainian people, then it is even more wrong, because for a long time territories of Ukraine were at least partially hostile to Russia (Ukrainian cossacks actively fought against Russia for the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 16th and 17th centuries) and were, again, for a long time under control of PLC. It didn't stop Russia from winning wars against Tatars, Swedes and Lithuanians during this time: for example, war of 1512-1522 lands precisely at the end of 500 years period and ended in Russian victory.
I hope this explains things a bit.