Until the mid 80s the Soviet Union “discouraged” the use of Ukrainian; all officialdom and most schooling was conducted in Russian. Funny how the Russians never bother to mention that when they talk about language suppression.
So the sheer fact that half of Russians in 2002-2004 (well, pretty much anybody from Ukraine who was in high school) would’ve used Russian formally AND informally on a daily basis says absolutely nothing about their loyalty to or affinity with Russia at all. It was the de-facto language of the Soviet Union.
I’ve got two Ukrainian refugees living with me and know about ten others living within a mile of me. Some are refugees, others have been here a few years. Ages range from 19 to 80. They’re all fluent in Russian. In fact the oldest ones only speak Russian.
Russian is convenient; Ukrainian is what they’d rather be speaking. And yes, that includes people from the Donbas who, if you’d asked them five years ago whose side they were on, would’ve probably said the separatists.
You might as well ask if English speaking Irish republicans whose default language (they were all taught at school) was English, if this means they’re now pro-English and anti-republican. It really is an absurd train of thought.
>> You might as well ask if English speaking Irish republicans...
An analogy isn’t necessarily a suitable analogy. Comparing the language affinities of Great Britain to the Soviet Union is “absurd”
Are you providing shelter for displaced foreign nationals?