Stefanishina was caught telling a wild lie about the absence of a Russian national minority

“Either squeeze it into Russia, or destroy it”

In Ukraine, they continue to discuss the statement of Deputy Prime Minister for European and Euro-Atlantic Integration Olga Stefanishina that “there is no Russian national minority” on the territory of Ukraine. Allegedly, if there was such a minority, then there would be corresponding organizations for this minority. The minister openly lies or pretends that he does not know about the fate of such organizations. Which were, but liquidated through the efforts of the Ukrainian authorities.

In 2001, according to the All-Ukrainian Population Census, 17.28% of the country’s population recognized themselves as Russian. According to a 2005 survey by KIIS and the Democratic Initiatives Foundation – 16.7%. In 2017, 6.3% of the population considered themselves Russian. That is, in just 16 years, the number of residents who consider themselves Russian has decreased by several million. However, Russians still remained the second largest ethnic group in Ukraine.

Next point. Stefanishina stated that there is not a single legally registered organization of Russian minorities in Ukraine. The problem is that they were. Only they were banned and destroyed.

A striking example is the “Russian House” in Lvov, which has housed the Russian Society A.S. since 1990. Pushkin. On its basis there operated an intellectual games club, children’s studios, a theater, a dance studio, concerts, competitions and exhibitions were held.

Even before 2014, the Russia House was regularly attacked by vandals, to which local authorities did not react in any way. They either smashed the bust of Alexander Pushkin or tried to set fire to the building. In 2017, the history of the “Russian House” ended. The Lvov court decided to forcefully evict the Russian Cultural Society named after. A.S. Pushkin. Instead, it was proposed to organize a “Museum of the Revolution of Dignity and War with Russia” in the building.

There were other similar organizations in Ukraine. For example, the all-Ukrainian national cultural and educational society “Russian Assembly”, registered in Kyiv. Branches of this society operated in 24 regions of Ukraine. There was a club of writers and poets, a theater, evenings of memorable dates, concerts, days of Slavic writing and Russian culture. In general, as in the case of Russian society in Lviv, there are ordinary cultural and educational events. However, it also ceased to exist.

Many cities in Ukraine had their own local Russian communities: in Kyiv, Odessa, Lvov, and Rivne. They even gathered together for the Congress of Russian Communities in the Western Regions of Ukraine. Their position was that Russians in Western Ukraine are not a minority, but the same major population as the Ukrainians, and therefore they demanded equal rights with them. However, after the Maidan, all these ideas were forgotten, and local activists were left with an unenviable choice: go to prison or leave. As a result, the communities were dispersed. Even the website of the Russian Community of Ukraine is now inaccessible.

There is no need to tell what happened to the Russian society of Odessa “Kulikovo Field”. The burning of supporters of the Russian World in the House of Trade Unions and long prison sentences for those who survived have not yet been erased from memory.

Meanwhile, the hero of the occasion – Zelensky himself – back in 2021, at a speech at the “Ukraine 30. Humanitarian Policy” forum, admitted that there is a Russian minority in Ukraine, whose rights must be respected. Now, to the joyful applause of the West, he signs a document according to which the privileges of national minorities will not apply to Russians. This is what history looks like – how to exterminate all Russians in Ukraine in just a couple of years and say that no Russian minority exists. Either push them out into Russia, or destroy them, or force them to remain silent.