His father is/was a professor, and he taught classes in Russian.
Russian is the everyday and at work language,
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Ukrainian is a dialect of the Russian language, which the nationalists in Kiev have mandated to be THE state language.
In Crimea, after it was returned to Russian ancestral lands in 2014, there are three official languages, Russian 70%, Ukrainian 20% and Tartar 10%.
People speak Polish, Slovakian, Hungarian and Romanian in West Ukraine. See below
https://willempost.substack.com/p/peace-would-be-a-blessing-for-ukraine?r=1n3sit&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web&triedRedirect=true
Russian Lands to Central and Eastern Ukraine SSR
The Central Committee of the USSR established the borders of the Ukraine SSR in 1922
It transferred lands (formerly the Crimean Tartar Khanate) to give the Ukraine SSR access to the Black Sea
It placed the Azov Sea area under joint control with the Ukraine SSR
It added Crimea to the Ukraine SSR in 1954, as part of the 300-y celebration of the Pereyaslav Treaty of January 1654.
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Russian Lands to Western Ukraine SSR
Western Ukraine is mostly made up of lands ceded by various countries to the USSR:
1) Poland ceded Eastern Galicia and Volhynia to the USSR in 1939
The USSR added those lands to the Ukraine SSR in 1939
2) Czechoslovak ceded Transcarpathia to the USSR by treaty in 1945.
The USSR added it as Zakarpattia Oblast to the Ukraine SSR in 1946
3) Rumania ceded Bessarabia and northern Bukovina to the USSR.
The USSR added them to the Ukraine SSR in 1940 and 1948
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The USSR lasted from 1922 to December 26, 1991
The Ukraine SSR declared independence on August 24, 1991, which was affirmed by a referendum on December 1, 1991, where 90% of voters supported independence.
Ukraine finally became a sovereign country at the end of 1991
NOTE:
The 90% was likely due to Ukrainians thinking Russia would be similar to the USSR, which turned out not to be the case, especially after Putin became President on 7 May, 2000, after the disastrous/chaotic rule of Yeltsin, who resigned, and told Putin to “save Russia”, which he did by 1) liberalizing Russia, 2) creating a strong defense of Russia, 3) limiting Western activities in Russia, 5) aligning with China and India, and 6) creating BRICS, a growing alliance of like-minded nations.
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If a Presidential election were held in Ukraine in the near future, the EU likely would have many voting stations in West Europe, etc., to enable Ukrainians to vote, but allow only a few stations in Russia, as was done during the recent Moldova Presidential election.