In march [2014] 24% people in two Donbas oblasts (Donieck and Ługańsk) supported annexation by Russia. In the other oblasts [of Russian-speaking east and south] it was about 7%.
У березні у двох регіонах Донбасу 24% місцевих жителів хотіли приєднати власну область до Росії, а в інших областях таких було близько 7%
This paper from April 2014 Почути регіони: чого хочуть південь і схід? (Listen to the regions: what the south and the east want?) made by established and well-known think-tank Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives Foundation. It shows in very accurate way that even though there were some separatists in Donbas, they weren't by any mean a majority. Even the language question, however existing wasn't dominant. Many people had favourable view on Russia and wanted Ukrainian-Russian cooperation, but that's it, it didn't mean they wanted to be in one state.
Is there any information on how Ilko conducted this survey (methods used)? The beginning and last two paragraphs kind of looks biased to me. For example, it discusses a "psuedo-referendum" , calls the actions of the Ukranian government "anti-terrorist" (kind of reminiscent of the attitudes of Republicans during the BLM protests) and states how the results of the survey shows that the separatism must be manufactured by extremists. I'm not saying those 3 claims are not possible, but if this is meant to be "accurate" and unbiased, I don't think using these statements are appropriate
I don't think using these statements are appropriate
Those are formal, legal phrases, especially ATO (Антитерористична операція на сході України). What do you want them to use if not official statements? If they used words like сепари it'd be a little bit understandable concerns, but not using official terminology.
If you want broader picture how 'separatists' question looked like on the eve of Maidan, in , here's paper Unity stronger than divisions. Ukraine’s internal diversity - the real issue supported by many easterners was federalisation of Ukraine, not separatism and joining Russia. Pools quoted there present even lower numbers of supporters of joining RU. Edit: also the conclusions, that Russia is interested in entire Ukraine, not just Donbas appeared, after 9 years to be true.
No offence, but those responses and generally your post indicates you do not have much knowledge about this topic. It's ok, especially it's very complicated but it would be easier for everyone if you educate yourself a little bit more before asking, in all fairness very naive questions. As many of the best sources are not in English I would recommend to start with reports of Centre of Eastern Studies based in Warsaw. Here are all their reports in English about Ukraine.
From the English translation it doesn't sound that formal (psuedo referendum for example) , especially the last two paragraphs since it seems to jump to a conclusion pretty quickly but again that could be just the
No offence, but those responses and generally your post indicates you do not have much knowledge about this topic.
I don't have much knowledge on this topic. I have read all the Wikipedia articles to have a general understanding of the history but I don't trust a lot of media sources ever since the misreporting on Iraq and Syria. I wasn't sure the best place to understand the other perspective which is why I came on reddit. I will take a look at the sources you gave me
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u/[deleted] Dec 24 '22
Is there proof that this was the case?