I am fascinated by the language situation in Ukraine and the recent article by James Meek in the London Review of Books ( https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v45/n16/james-meek/every-field-every-yard) helps to feed this interest.
Meek refers to those who have changed from using Russian to using Ukrainian and gives the example of a singer, Ruslan Kuznetsov, who used to sing in Russian but now uses Ukrainian. He surprised Ukrainian speakers by using it so well but for many Russian speakers, this change will be a challenge.
Meek also refers to the way that English is playing a more important role and how it might be more sensitive to try English in Ukraine first rather than Russian if a person only knows English and Russian, which is the case for him.
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Stanislav Bindiugin
Times are changing, and many people in Ukraine especially young persons, such as students and postgraduates in Russian speaking regions of the country, have realized that a very important aspect of identification themselves as Ukrainian nation is using Ukrainian language in their everyday life.
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Thanks for the comment, StanIt is interesting watching reports from Ukraine on TV and trying to see who is speaking Ukrainian or Russian but it is sometimes hard to be sure as they usually dub after a small extract and the languages are so similar that it is hard to be sure in a small extract.
Would I be right in thinking it is more often older people who are still speaking Russian? Are most of the Russian speakers proud Ukrainians even if they speak Russian? That is what an Ukrainian bilingual ex student of mine told me.