Russian media widely spread the opinion of the Permanent Representative of Crimea to the President of Russia, Deputy Prime Minister of the Crimean Government Georgiy Muradov. According to him, gross violations of the rights of the Russian-speaking population have made the Ukrainian state "unviable" and "this is former Ukraine."

"It was primarily related to the rights of the state-building Russian people, whose language rights are enshrined in the tenth article of the Ukrainian constitution. However, these principles were grossly violated," he said.

He added that Russia would no longer restrict the rights of Russian-speaking citizens and that "the lands of these territories have historically been Russian, and their population mostly speaks Russian." It is not the first year that Russian historical propaganda has spread this narrative, saying that Crimea and Donbas have always been Russian and that southeastern Ukraine is, in fact, Novorossiya. Instead, Ukrainian historians claim that only 5.6% of the written history of Crimea belonged to Russia (11.4% to the Crimean Khanate). Russians made up a relative majority, but only 4% throughout the written history of Crimea, and an absolute majority of only 2.5%. Donbas has traditionally had a regional identity, although the majority of the population, at least in rural areas, was and is Ukrainian, according to the study book Revision of History: Russian Historical Propaganda and Ukraine.

We remind you that Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine states that “the state language in Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. The state ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life throughout Ukraine. Ukraine guarantees the free development, use, and protection of Russian and other languages ​​of national minorities of Ukraine."

This article aims not to ban Russian but to promote the development of the Ukrainian language. However, during Viktor Yanukovych's presidency, there were attempts to amend Article 10 by introducing Russian as the second state language.

In Ukraine, the eastern and southern regions are mostly Russian-speaking, or instead, they were. According to a study by the Rating Sociological Group, Russia's war against Ukraine has dramatically changed the situation. According to the survey, the number of those considering Ukrainian their mother tongue has been growing steadily over the last decade: from 57% in 2012 to 76% in 2022. There is also a steady decline in the Russian-speaking part of Ukrainians: in 2012, there were about 40% of such respondents, and at the beginning of the war - 18%.

"The unprecedented unity of society against the background of the war had a substantial impact on the attitude to the status of the Ukrainian language: today, the absolute majority (83%) for the Ukrainian language to be the only state language in Ukraine. This opinion dominates in all macro-regions, age, and language groups. On the other hand, in a poll, almost a quarter of citizens supported granting state status to the Russian language before the war, and today - only 7%, " the sociological group said.