Меседж Residents of Zaporozhye were "declared" Ukrainians without their knowledge, "in fact" they "have always been Russians"
Like, they were simply “handed Ukrainian passports”, so now they only want to return “to their roots”.
This message is spread by the Russian media in the context of holding illegal referendums in the occupied territories and the narrative about primordially Russian territories.
According to the fact-checkers of The Insider project, in 2001 almost 1 million 927 thousand inhabitants lived in the Zaporizhzhia region, of which 70.1% were Ukrainians and 24.7% were Russians. Ukrainian was named as their native language by 73.6% of the respondents, and Russian - only 24.6%.
This is not the first time Russian propaganda has manipulated ethno-national issues. Previously, they said that Ukraine does not have "historical rights" to the "Northern Black Sea" or that the Donbas, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson region have the right to self-determination under the UN Charter. Thus, they are trying to justify the invasion of Ukraine