Yes, the Russians were there, for centuries. They are majority ethnically Russian, they speak Russian, and are culturally Russian. The Donbass region was added to Ukrainian jurisdiction in 1922, but to this day they are ethnically Russian. When the Euromaidan coup happened and the far-right Banderites took power, the Donbass region seceded.

[+] prosecute_traitors@lemmy.world -9 points 5 days ago (1 children)

"Ethnically Russian" is a racist dogwhistle. Like 30% of the us population is ethnically German. Should Germany now invade?

[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 11 points 5 days ago (1 children)

The US is a settler-colony, that's an entirely different situation. The Donbass region is historically a group occupied by ethnic Russians, Russian is the dominant language, and it has been this way for centuries. Even a basic Wikipedia article makes this clear. Whether or not the Donbass region is historically occupied by ethnic Russians isn't what's in question, what's important is that the post-Euromaidan government is a group of nationalist Banderites that have been suppressing ethnic Russians, including erasure of the Russian language.

This is why it's important to recognize that the seperatists have very good reasons to want to leave Ukraine. Those that are against their ability to join Russia through annexation must make the argument that they not be allowed to secede even from a government that has been shelling and slaughtering them.

[+] Marbles@discuss.tchncs.de -12 points 5 days ago (3 children)

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[–] Cowbee@lemmy.ml 13 points 5 days ago

This isn't nonsense in any way, the fact that the Banderites currently in power in Kiev have been suppressing the Russian language is common knowledge. The unnamed "international monitors" are about as reliable as the UN "weapons inspectors" in Iraq. It makes perfect sense that the Ukrainian nationalists that uphold Stepan Bandera are racist against Russians.

[–] Grapho@lemmy.ml 10 points 5 days ago (1 children)

Oh so we're just ignoring the statements of genocidal intent from Ukrainian leadership and the hours and hours of residential bombing footage? Just regular weSSterner shit

[–] GiorgioPerlasca@lemmy.ml 3 points 4 days ago

After 2014, Ukraine adopted a number of laws restricting the public sphere of the Russian language:

In 2016-2017, language quotas were introduced on television and radio (up to 75% of content in Ukrainian), which reduced the presence of the Russian language in the media.
In 2018, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine repealed the 2012 law "On the Fundamentals of State Language Policy" (known as the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko Act), which gave Russian the status of a regional language in areas with more than 10% of native speakers.
The law "On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language" adopted in 2019 tightened the requirements for the use of Ukrainian in education, public services and the public sphere.

There was no direct ban on private use, but systemic restrictions in the public space raised concerns among Russian-speaking citizens about the future of their linguistic identity.