The Home Use Of The Russian Langauage Is Strong Factor In Determining Their Sovereign Status

 

According to July 2012 polling by RATING, 50% of the surveyed adult residents in Ukraine over 18 years of age considered their native language to be Ukrainian, 29% said Russian, 20% identified both Russian and Ukrainian as their native language, 1% gave another language. 5% could not decide which language is their native one.

According to a 2004 public opinion poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology, the number of people using Russian language in their homes considerably exceeds the number of those who declared Russian as their native language in the census. According to the survey, Russian is used at home by 43–46% of the population of the country (in other words a similar proportion to Ukrainian) and Russophones make a majority of the population in Eastern and Southern regions of Ukraine.

The following are the percentages of people in Ukrainian oblasts (states) who use Russia as their first language at home.

Autonomous Republic of Crimea — 97% of the population

Dnipropetrovsk Oblast — 72%

Donetsk Oblast — 93%

Luhansk Oblast — 89%

Zaporizhia Oblast — 81%

Odessa Oblast — 85%

Kharkiv Oblast — 74%

Mykolaiv Oblast — 66%

The Kherson Oblast is also predominantly Russian-speaking. Russia occupies Luhansk. They occupy most of Donetsk and Kherson. They also occupy much of Zaphorizhia.

It is obvious that the majority of people in these Russian occupied territories do not want to remain as a state in Ukraine. Please take note of the fact that there have been no uprisings against the Russian occupiers, much less any protest. That itself should reveal the antipathy that these people have towards Ukraine and its Kyiv-based government. 

Whether those occupied people desire to be a territory or even a state in the Russian Federation remains to be seen. They may instead want to have autonomous republic status or even be their own sovereign independent nation(s). At this juncture, it is difficult for anyone to state. Once peace sets in, hopefully the concerns of these people will be addressed.