Are Russian speakers discriminated against in Ukraine?
Russia often claims that Russian speakers are discriminated against in Ukraine.
One famous Russian speaker in Ukraine, is definitely not discriminated against.
President Zelensky is a Russian speaker, and yet in 2017, he was elected as President of Ukraine by 73.2% of Ukrainian voters.
Zelenskyy grew up as a native Russian speaker in Kryvyi Rih, a major city of Dnipropetrovsk Oblast in central Ukraine.
The Russian leader said his forces invaded Ukraine because a genocide was underway against Russian-speakers. People in Ukraine say that claim is a hoax. www.npr.org
At least until February 2022, Russian remained the main language of business in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, as well as the main lingua in the streets. www.gatewayhouse.in
Ukraine’s Russian speakers worry about being ‘saved’ by Putin. “These fairy tales about the language are just an excuse to invade,” www.france24.com
Based on the 2001 census, about 14.3 million Ukrainian people (29% of the population) spoke Russian as a first language.
After the Russian Invasion of Ukraine in 2014, there were waves of protests against the Russian language being used in Ukraine, as it was the language of an enemy aggressor country.
Putin, in his 2021 article “On the Historical Unity of Russians and Ukrainians” used that as examples of discrimination against Russian-speakers in Ukraine, causing him to mount an even larger invasion in February 2022.
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