Canada and Russia clash in Ukraine Twitter spat

Russia's Nato delegation posted a tweet yesterday restating Russian ownership of Crimea during a bad-tempered Twitter spat with their Canadian counterparts.

The Canadian Nato delegation had posted a "helpful geography lesson" for Russian soldiers whom Moscow claimed had become lost and accidentally entered southeastern Ukraine. The tweet went viral yesterday and was retweeted 32,000 times.

Ukraine had released a video of the Russian paratroopers on Tuesday, claiming it had captured them inside its eastern border. Russian military sources said the men had crossed the border "by accident".

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

In response to the claim, the official Twitter account for Canada's Nato delegation tweeted an image of the region, highlighting which parts were "Russia" and which parts were "not Russia".

Russia responded with a tweet of its own, in which it declared sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula – which is not recognised by most of the rest of the world.

The map also partly shades Abkhazia and South Ossetia, which have both declared their independence from Georgia.

Part of the area of eastern Ukraine that is currently experiencing heavy fighting between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists has been "conveniently left unillustrated," the BBC says.