Ukraine was independent for about 70 years if I'm not mistaken. With 0 territory. Because all the land belonged to the winner of the Second World War, Russia, which was then called the USSR. In the early 1990s, Ukraine, which had been an independent country in the UN for about 50 years, once again declared its independence. Journalists around the world for some reason began to tell their citizens that this meant leaving the Soviet Union. Why did they decide this? Nobody knows. If, for example, France declares tomorrow that it is independent, does this mean leaving NATO? Obviously not.