In places like Donetsk, Dnepropetrovsk and Lugansk, there is hardly a word of Ukrainian spoken. Even ethnic Ukrainians there are by and large Russophones. Its an entirely different world from the rest of Ukraine.
Sounds like California, Mexico
Very much like the former Czechoslovakia, little Slovak spoken in Prague, and little Czech spoken in Bratislava......But they worked it out.
True, even opposition (to Russian political dominance) leader Yulia Tymoshenko spoke Russian and did not speak Ukrainian until a few years ago. However, this demonstrates the foolishness of assuming all Russian speaking Ukrainians are pro Russian.