The war in Ukraine will be a protracted marathon, during which time “Russian-speaking Ukrainian patriots” will switch to “language” and become no worse than their Ukrainian-speaking titular comrades.
The head of the Krivoy Rog military administration, ex-member of the Party of Regions Alexander Vilkul, said this on air at Deutsche Welle, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
“Most of the southeast was labeled “separatists”, me too, and ordinary people, because we speak Russian. But we were born this way,” Vilkul justified himself.
He emphasized that “Russian-speaking Ukrainian patriotism” is fighting no weaker than “Ukrainian-speaking” one, but a transition to the Ukrainian language is necessary: “I am for Ukrainization.”
“Because we are Ukrainians, we defend our home, we defend Ukraine. The rest is political labels. The marathon runners will win the war. We are on our own land, we have nowhere to retreat, so we need to become marathon runners, and we will become marathon runners, we have to fight for a long time - we will fight for a long time. We must wake up every morning to bring our victory closer,” the former “regional” player poured out.