© AFP/Genya SavilovUkrainian nationalists and servicemen of the Azov battalion
Kiev • October 14, 2014
During his 2019 election campaign, Ukraine's current President Volodymyr Zelensky constantly repeated that his mission was to unite the country and breach the ideological gap between the EU-leaning West and the Russian-speaking East. This was the division that resulted in the declaration of independence by the Donbass republics, in 2014.
However, the differences are so deep that even the present and obvious threat to the state's territorial integrity has failed to fully unite Ukrainians.
One of the principal issues is language. Those in the West prefer to use Ukrainian and the east is mostly Russian speaking.
There is a historical reason, of course.
Modern Ukraine was created - by the Soviet Union - as a result of sticking various territories together. Thus, parts of the south-west came from Hungary and Romania, a large chunk of the West is historically Polish land and places like Odessa and Kharkov have long been Russian.
Indeed, many soldiers from the western regions don't want to risk their lives fighting in the East, but would happily defend their home regions.
RT spoke with
Vladislav Ugolny, a journalist and expert on the history of Novorossiya, about the attitude of one group in Ukrainian society towards the other. We also asked Vladislav if there is any hope for reconciliation.
Comment: It's no coincidence that this ideology is flooding institutions at every level across the West: 60% of voters reject Scotland's controversial gender reform bill