National Identity in the Eastern and Southern Ukraine in 2022: a National Survey Analysis

The Russia-Ukraine conflict over territory is rekindled by the Russia’s military invasion into Ukraine in February 2022. Russia takes it as the pretext of this invasion to protect the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine which accounts for about one-third of the Ukraine population. Russia has insisted that Ukraine does not have a separate and independent national identity distinct from Russia. Russia further insists that Ukraine was historic allyl a part of Russia and should be incorporated into the Russian civilization world. Radical Russian nationalists believe that it is their duty to reclaim the Eastern Ukraine which rightfully belongs to Russia but is mistakenly given to Ukraine. Ukrainian politicians and scholars deny any of these claims made by Russian nationalists. This debate between Russia and Ukraine over Ukraine’s identity largely depends on the definition of national identity. national identity can be defined as ethnical or civic one. Ethnically, Ukraine has a national identity close to Russia’s. However, in terms of civic identity, Ukraine has a distinct identity from Russia’s. Ukrainian scholars emphasize that most residents in Ukraine have Ukraine civic identity and have fortified it in the wake of the Crimean Peninsula annexation and the Donbass war in 2014. On the other hand, Russian nationalists deny this argument. To answer the questions, this article conducts a nationally representative telephone survey in Ukraine in February, 2022. The survey shows that about 70% of the respondents identify themselves as entirely Ukrainian citizen. Even in the East Ukraine, over 50% of the respondents do so. Thus, the Russian nationalists claim that the Russian-speaking people in the East feel Russian national identity is not empirically supported by our survey. However, the Ukrainization of Russian-speaking people in the East has not occurred as widely as some scholars assert although there is clear evidence for the phenomenon.