Russophones in Ukraine

When I learned yesterday that Kharkiv was largly Russian-speaking, it seemed strange to me that Putin would attack that city and expect its residents to praise him and welcome the Russian troops.

Then I learned that Russian is widely spoken in Ukraine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language_in_Ukraine

[in contrast to many other Eastern European countries where children some decades ago might have been forced to learn Russian in school because of Soviet domination]

Nevertheless, nothing says "restoring Russian Christendom" quite like bombing civilians and hospitals.

@kevin-eleven said
When I learned yesterday that Kharkiv was largly Russian-speaking, it seemed strange to me that Putin would attack that city and expect its residents to praise him and welcome the Russian troops.

Then I learned that Russian is widely spoken in Ukraine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language_in_Ukraine

[in contrast to many other Eastern European countries w ...[text shortened]... vertheless, nothing says "restoring Russian Christendom" quite like bombing civilians and hospitals.

@kevin-eleven said
When I learned yesterday that Kharkiv was largly Russian-speaking, it seemed strange to me that Putin would attack that city and expect its residents to praise him and welcome the Russian troops.

Then I learned that Russian is widely spoken in Ukraine:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_language_in_Ukraine

[in contrast to many other Eastern European countries w ...[text shortened]... vertheless, nothing says "restoring Russian Christendom" quite like bombing civilians and hospitals.

@mchill - Nevertheless, nothing says "restoring Russian Christendom" quite like bombing civilians and hospitals.

uh oh. I get the sense we are in agreement about something,, again!

It must be Lent! 😏

@earl-of-trumps said
@mchill - Nevertheless, nothing says "restoring Russian Christendom" quite like bombing civilians and hospitals.

uh oh. I get the sense we are in agreement about something,, again!

It must be Lent! 😏

@athousandyoung said
Motivating Putin’s attacks in part are discriminatory laws against Russians that Ukraine passed a few years ago.

@Kevin-Eleven

The problem, I think, is that the Soviets drew up very generous borders for Ukraine. And why not? It was all done with the understanding that Ukraine was part of a larger entity known as the USSR. And I think it was only in the 1950s, sometime, when the Crimean peninsula was transferred from Russia proper to Ukrainian administration despite it being something like 90% Russian. Again, why not? Moscow ultimately ruled over everything, so it was no skin off the nose of the ordinary Russian.

Borders should have been renegotiated and redrawn back in 1991 when Ukraine bailed out of the USSR. There was too much chaos at the time, though, and Moscow had its hands full.

Ukraine east of the Dnieper river is mostly Russian -- or at least huge swaths of it are. It's quite a tangle.

Russian and Ukrainian are very similar languages. I've taken two cracks at learning Russian myself. Some of it has stuck, but it's a damn difficult language. The only way I can tell written Ukrainian from written Russian, usually, is by spotting the "i" letter that the Ukrainian alphabet has which the Russian alphabet doesn't. The equivalent letter in Russian is an upside-down capital N.

@soothfast said
@Kevin-Eleven

The problem, I think, is that the Soviets drew up very generous borders for Ukraine. And why not? It was all done with the understanding that Ukraine was part of a larger entity known as the USSR. And I think it was only in the 1950s, sometime, when the Crimean peninsula was transferred from Russia proper to Ukrainian administration despite it being some ...[text shortened]... t of the Dnieper river is mostly Russian -- or at least huge swaths of it are. It's quite a tangle.