Apparently there are over 2.5 million Ukrainian citizens living in Russia. Certainly a good number of these may be native Russian speakers with no particularly strong affinity to the Ukrainian state, but I’m sure many others are native Ukrainian speakers who identify themselves primarily as Ukrainians.
In light of the current military conflict, has anyone heard any news about what is happening to the Ukrainian diaspora in Russia? For example, has the Russian government imposed any restrictions on them (over and above the war censorship that applies to everyone in Russia)? I know that many Ukrainian citizens outside Ukraine are now returning to fight, and obviously it isn’t in Russia’s interest to permit its own Ukrainian residents to do so. Have they been prevented from leaving?
Apart from any actions by the state, how is the Ukrainian community in Russia is being treated? Here in Austria there’s been an uptick in anti-Russian sentiment, with employees of Russian-owned companies (even those not under sanctions) receiving hate mail and death threats. I have Russian-speaking friends and acquaintances (among them patriotic Ukrainian citizens!) who have been yelled at by strangers for speaking Russian in public. I’m curious whether anything similar is happening to Ukrainian companies and Ukrainian-speaking people in Russia.
Despite the extensive news coverage of the war in Ukraine, I haven’t seen any reports about this particular topic.
I saw a brief TV news blurb on this topic a few days ago. The reporter said that there is no hatred for Ukrainians in Russia as they are considered Russians at heart and not foreigners. I assume that any Ukrainian dissidents in Russia have been silenced and that the Russians protesting against the war are supporting the Ukrainians living there.
Unfortunately, most people in Russia, including those who happen to be Ukrainian, are being fed lies about what is actually happening. I know that some Ukrainians living in Ukraine who have relatives in Russia have been telling them what is going on and they don’t believe them. They believe whatever the Russian media, which is tightly controlled by the Russian government, tells them.
It’s been mentioned multiple times on National News outlets that Ukrainians who call their families back in Russia and tell them what is happening invariably find their family doesn’t believe them. This makes sense since 100% of the news they consume contradicts what is really going on, and most Russians don’t have easy access to Western news sources. Why would Russians believe anyone else?
This is certainly true, though there is no doubt a not-insignificant number who do have access. I have colleagues in Russia (none of which, to my knowledge, are Ukrainians) who have spoken out against the war, both publically and to me personally, and who have demonstrated a much broader understanding of the situation than would be possible if they had been getting their news only from state-aligned media. So it’s reasonable to assume that there are Ukrainian citizens living in Russia who also fervently oppose the actions of the Russian government. I wonder if any of them have tried to return to Ukraine to fight, and if so, whether the Russian government has put up any roadblocks, or if it considers this more trouble than it’s worth. (It’s already become difficult to leave Russia since its own airlines won’t fly out of the Union State any more; maybe this is enough of a deterrent.)
No, all I’ve done is speculate. I’m curious what would happen if someone with a Ukrainian passport and Russian residence permit presented themselves at a Moscow airport with a one-way ticket to Warsaw or Chisinau via Istanbul. I wonder if anyone has actually tried this in the last two weeks.