I’m curious...I visited with a woman from the Ukraine going to school here in the US. She has parents and a sister still in the Ukraine and speaks with them by phone regularly. According to her, our news has it all wrong. The Eastern Ukrainians want to re-join Russia and have been begging Putin to come in and rescue them from a murderous Ukraine government. They all speak Russian and want to be a part of Russia, not the Ukraine. I was flabbergasted because it seemed so contrary to all we hear. Has anyone else heard such claims?
What I can say is that there is no animosity between the people of Ukraine and Russia. I don't know of anyone who wants a war. I have several friends who have family and friends living in Ukraine. They say that what you see on the news is much different than reality.
I would question news reports on BOTH sides. This story was posted by NPR. NPR is nothing but a mouthpiece for the liberal left. It's goal is to make Obama look good.
Did you ask her what language her family speaks at home? I’m betting Russian.
I work with a guy from Eastern Ukraine and what he tells me pretty much coincides with what you heard and posted.
We have a large community of Russian expatriates, Romanians, and Moldovans.
I work with two ethnic Russians from Ukraine.
They believe the central problem is one of economic opportunity.
Ukraine has never had an especially strong economy, and there has been very little recovery since the Great Recession in 2008-2009.
According to them, the Russians in Crimea and east Ukraine believe their standard of living will go up much more with Russia than with Ukraine.