DISINFO: People in south and east Ukraine are Russians
SUMMARY
Russia has historically put great emphasis on southeastern Ukraine. Why? Because they are historically Russian lands. And the people living there are practically Russians, regardless of what their passports may say. Their only native language is Russian, their entire culture and tradition is Russian.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin narrative questioning Ukrainian statehood and the existence of a Ukrainian nation that is separate from Russia. More broadly, the claim advances the narrative of "Russian world" - a pseudohistorical doctrine claiming that the territories roughly covering the former Soviet Union constitute modern Russia's "sphere of influence."
Ukraine is a well-defined nation-state with a long history and its own literature and identity, despite foreign rule for long periods of time. Ukrainians and Russians belong to the same ethnolinguistic group - the Slavs - but that alone does not preclude Ukraine's distinctness as nation.
Historically, the ethnic make-up of southeastern Ukraine has been overwhelmingly Ukrainian. According to one Soviet demographic study, 79% of people in Yekaterinoslav Governorate (covering much of present-day east and south Ukraine, with an administrative centre in what is now the east Ukrainian city of Dnipro) were recorded as ethnic Ukrainians in surveys carried out in 1795 and 1858 (p. 24). The first Soviet census conducted in 1926 showed that, in the eight Ukrainian oblasts spanning the country's south and east, a mere 16.4% identified as ethnic Russians, against 65.8% self-identifying as Ukrainian. The region gradually became more Russified on account of the Soviet industrialisation effort and the Holodomor of 1932-33, a man-made famine in which millions of ethnic Ukrainians were wiped out and replaced by a massive influx of Russians (p. 636). See a collection of earlier disinformation cases concerning the Holodomor.
For additional context, see our analysis of the "one nation myth" promulgated above. See also related cases: Ukraine was created by Russia, it is historically fair that it becomes Russian again; Russia only tries to protect its people in its historical borders; The war in Ukraine is about the reunification of the Russian people.