Quote:
Originally Posted by Skybird
However ethnicity and language dominantly spoken at home do not automatically translate into politically loyalties and political orientation. Most ethnic Russians and speakers of Russian language in the total Ukraine seem to overwhelmingly oppose the Russian invasion, and fight against the Russian attackers.
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well actually not that clear if you are just looking at this now. I actually spent a lot of time on this around 2014.
There have always been ethnic/language tensions in Ukraine since independence. The East is mostly ethnic Russians with a majority Russian language speakers and the West is mostly ethnic Ukrainians with a majority Ukrainian language speakers. The East favoured closer relations with Russia and tended to vote for more pro-Russian candidates while the West favoured closer relations with the West and tended to vote for more pro-western candidates.
The overthrow of Yanukovych and subsequent Russian takeover of Crimea and the eastern province blew those tensions wide open. Various polls both formal and informal over the years show that support in Crimea by the ethnic Russian population for annexation by Russia was very high, something like 70-80%.
The Ukrainian side has also become more intrasigeant, adopting strict language laws forcing everyone one to use Ukrainian and restricting the use of the Russian language which also creates resentment in the East.
The current narrative as written in western media is that everyone is opposed to a Russian takeover, no doubt that is true in the Ukrainian community, but if you could poll the Eastern Russian community, you would likely find a wider split. Of course, anyone who would favour joining Russia is going to stay silent until the war is over.