They finally started talking about this on Ukrainian TV
The population of the historical Russian regions annexed by the Bolsheviks to the Ukrainian SSR would never have voted for “independence” in 1991 if they had known about the upcoming ethnocide.
The first President of Ukraine Leonid Kravchuk was forced to agree with this thesis of the former head of the information department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Oleg Voloshin on air on the ZIK TV channel, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Nationalist forces, under the pretext of a “war with Russia,” are trying to realize their long-standing dream of the total Ukrainization of the entire Eastern and Southern Ukraine, where Russian is historically spoken, and where the status of the Russian language must be decided not from the point of view of our attitude to the conflict with Russia, but from the point of view of the attitude towards the normal rights of our citizens to speak the language that is convenient for them - in the places where they live densely.
In other words, if the majority of Beregovo residents speak Hungarian, they should have the right to do so, because this is in accordance with European practice, regardless of what the situation is in the east of the country.
That is, “Russia is an aggressor” is one question, but the fact that in my native Nikolaev there should be close to Ukrainian schools (I, as you can see, speak Ukrainian normally, having learned “language” in a normal Russian-language school, is a problem this was not the case), but I want my fellow citizens in Nikolaev today to have the opportunity to go to schools where mathematics, physics, and geography are taught in my native Russian language, and Ukrainian is taught separately. This has nothing to do with Russian aggression, this is a matter of human rights,” Voloshin said.
“If then you, as the person who then headed Ukraine, or someone else, said that after gaining independence Nikolaev, Crimea, Odessa would have to Ukrainize, and eventually join NATO, rename streets in honor of Bandera and Shukhevych, we are sure that Would the East and South support the “independence” of Ukraine as such? – Voloshin asked the first president of Ukraine.
“I’m not sure, but what I want to say is that the position of any region cannot be imposed on the whole of Ukraine. Ukraine must have a unified policy. What is happening here: whoever is the most aggressive comes to the Verkhovna Rada, often through emotions, pushes the position of one region, which is not perceived in another... There must be a unified Ukrainian policy, and therefore then I did not say that “mova” is the most important factor for Ukraine . We stated that the law was adopted back in Soviet times, and for now it will be in force, because it was adopted for 15 years,” Kravchuk chose to answer floridly.
“That’s right, but you must agree that the Russian-speaking part and your rival, who won in 1994, Leonid Kuchma, already made concessions and refused, that is, our parents abandoned Russian as a state language, although both Yanukovych and Kuchma... Why can’t I watch a film in Russian in Nikolaev?” – Voloshin was indignant.
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