Russian minority in Ukraine do not live in siloed ghettos
People from outside of Ukraine do not always understand what does it mean to be a Russian minority in Ukraine. Because usually when they hear “minority” they think of Kurds in Iraq, Chechens in Russia or Cherokee in USA. However Russians in Ukraine are more like Irish or German in USA. They are an integral part of Ukrainian society and not a special group, which require some special handling.
But let’s clear one thing first. There are ethnic Russians and there are Russian-speaking Ukrainians. These are not the same. Due to historical reasons there are many ethnic Ukrainians who speak Russian. It’s similar to how many Irish speak English. If you hear someone speaking Russian, chances are higher that you listen to an ethnic Ukrainian than to an ethnic Russian. Majority of Ukrainians can speak both languages depending on situation. So if you hear some Ukrainian speaking Russian, this does not even mean that he is a Russian speaker. It’s complicated, that’s why people rarely care.
Ethnicity is a matter of self-identification in Ukraine. I don’t have a document which would state that I’m ethnic Ukrainian (side note — if you still think Ukraine is a Nazi state, why there are no “racial” documents?). Similarly there is no database of ethnic Russians living in Ukraine. And even if people identify as ethnic Russians, they do not associate themselves with Russia. Numbers suggest that. According to census in 2001 there were 17% of ethnic Russians living in Ukraine, but right now only 2% of Ukrainian population have good feelings towards Russia (comparing to about 40% before the 2022 invasion).
Nationality is more important than ethnicity in Ukraine. Zelensky (Ukrainian president) is the most obvious example. He is ethnically a Jew, but he does not associate himself with Izrael. There are other examples, less known to the outside audience. Take Vitalii Kim or Mustafa Nayem. One is of a Korean origin, another is Afghani. However they are not “lesser” Ukrainians and both are popular public figures.
Same for ethnic Russians. Most of them associate themselves with Ukraine and not Russia. And unless they publicly identify themselves as Russians, no one would ever know that they are actually ethnic Russians. Surnames are not indicative and many Russians speak Ukrainian, so language is not an indicator too. Figuring out which public figure is ethnic Russian is a very difficult task. There should be many of them. But unless they say — I wouldn’t know. And true to say, I don’t even care as long as they are on Ukrainian side.
I used to have a trick, which helped me to identify ethnic Russians in my Ukrainian-speaking city (not that I actually needed it). When I overheard someone talking to their kids in Russian I was pretty sure that they were actually ethnic Russians. This trick did not work in the Russian-speaking cities though. And after the 2022 invasion this trick stopped working at all. There are many Russian-speaking refugees in my city, plus many people switch to Ukrainian to break ties with Russia.
Russian minority do not live in some isolated silos. There are no “Russian quarters” in Ukraine where people dance with bears and play balalaika. Nor there is a territory populated exclusively by Russians surrounded by a territory populated exclusively by Ukrainians with occasional fights between those. Ethnic Russians live all over Ukraine, more on the East than on the West, more in cities than in villages.
There are many mixed marriages and in this case categorising a person as ethnic Russian becomes even more difficult. Because people are intermixed, the national identity is practically more important than ethnic for them.
There are other clear-cut minorities in Ukraine with a strong self-identification. For example Hungarians or Gagauz — they live in a very particular place. Then there are Jews, Armenians or Assyrians who are spread all over Ukraine. Then there are Crimean Tatars, Karaims and Krymchaks designated as indigenous people of Ukraine and have special protection.
Each minority is special. And Russian minority is also special in its own way. One thing which is special about them is that they are not particularly united. There is no “Russian party of Ukraine”. There is no unspoken rule that Russians should only marry Russians. And also often they do not have a strong sense of Russian identity. One of the reasons why they don’t is because Russia does not provide one. I described it in another article (link below), but in short — in Russia the word “Russian” lost its original meaning and is used to describe all the ethnicities living in Russia, including actually Russian ethnicity. Not that they cannot identify as ethnic Russians. But being a Ukrainian citizen is more important for them. As my ethnic Russian friend told me:
I am actually Russian but when Spartak Moscow plays against Dynamo Kyiv, I will cheer for Dynamo
Us vs them in Ukraine is not “ethnic Ukrainians vs ethnic Russians”. It’s about “who supports Ukraine in the war vs who don’t”.
Map of ethnical Russians in Ukraine. By Kuban kazak — Own work, CC BY-SA 2.5, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2138166