The disagreement began as the talk show panelists discussed whether “the Ukrainian people” even existed and had their own language.

It comes as Ukraine’s forces have liberated formerly Russian-held territories in a counterattack.

Daily Beast columnist Julia Davis shared the clip on Twitter on Tuesday evening. It has already been watched more than 345,000 times.

Davis tweeted: “‘Are We The Baddies?’ moment on Russian TV: One pundit, responding to his genocidal colleagues, who assert that Ukrainian nationality and language do not exist- suddenly realized he is in the company of actual Nazis and says, ‘This is clear cut nationalism.’”

The talk show aired in Russia on Monday, Davis wrote in the Daily Beast.

The argument erupted between filmmaker Karen Shakhnazarov, political scientists Sergey Mikheyev and Dmitry Drobnitsky, and commentator Alexander Sosnovsky—with the host chiming in as he tried to regain control of the conversation.

“We need some clarity in the political solution of the Ukrainian question,” Shakhnazarov said. “We need to admit that the Ukrainian people do exist.”

Mikheyev replied: “I disagree that we should offer Ukraine some type of an alternative, alternatives have been offered since 1991.

“All post-Soviet existence was such an alternative, we gave you a country you did not have before, you didn’t exist as a people, we gave you the feeling that you are a people.”

Drobnitsky agreed, adding: “Recognizing the existence of the Ukrainian people was the biggest mistake in our Soviet history.”

He was challenged by Shakhnazarov, who asked for clarification.

Drobnitsky replied: “The Ukrainian people do not exist. Any historian will confirm they do not exist. You want me to acknowledge their existence? Thanks, but no thanks, I won’t.”

He said the Ukrainian language did not exist either. “There is a Ukrainian dialect, it’s a Southern Russian dialect.”

Sosnovsky interjected: “Why would you say something stupid like that? Of course there is a Ukrainian language.”

In an attempt to regain control of the discussion, the host said: “When we, from the outside, tell Ukrainians ‘You don’t exist,’ I don’t think that is correct.”

Sosnovsky added: “Guys, this is clear-cut nationalism, we can’t do this.

“Turning all of that nation’s population against us, why are we doing this? It is total nonsense and I don’t want to continue with this topic. To me, this smells of nationalism, that is my last word on this.”

Ukraine’s independence has been a point of contention in Russia for many years.

“The notion that Ukraine is not a country in its own right, but a historical part of Russia, appears to be deeply ingrained in the minds of many in the Russian leadership,” wrote international affairs expert Björn Alexander Düben in a 2020 paper for the London School of Economics.

President Vladimir Putin has frequently stated that Ukrainians and Russians “are one and the same people,” according to Düben.

He added: “It was only with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 that Ukraine gained lasting independent statehood of its own. But Ukrainian de facto political entities struggling for their autonomy or independence had existed long before that.”

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for comment.