page_title: Russians in Ukraine
section_title: Ukraine after the dissolution of the Soviet Union
hierarchical_section_title: Russians in Ukraine / History / Ukraine after the dissolution of the Soviet Union
caption_attribution_description: Русский: Митинг в Донецке
context_page_description: Russians in Ukraine are the largest ethnic minority in the country, which community forms the largest single Russian diaspora in the world. In the 2001 Ukrainian census, 8,334,100 identified as ethnic Russians, this is the combined figure for persons originating from outside of Ukraine and the Ukrainian born population declaring Russian ethnicity.
context_section_description: Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Ukraine became an independent state. This independence was supported by the referendum in all regions of Ukrainian SSR, including those with large Russian populations. A study of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine found that in 1991, 75% of ethnic Russians in Ukraine no longer identified themselves with the Russian nation. In the December 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum 55% of the ethnic Russians in Ukraine voted for independence.
  The return of Crimean Tatars has resulted in several high-profile clashes over land ownership and employment rights.
  In 1994 a referendum took place in the Donetsk Oblast and the Luhansk Oblast, with around 90% supporting the Russian language gaining status of an official language alongside Ukrainian, and for the Russian language to be an official language on a regional level; however, the referendum was annulled by the Kiev government.
  Much controversy has surrounded the reduction of schools with Russian as their main language of instruction. In 1989, there were 4633 schools with Russian as the main instruction language, and by 2001 this number fell to 2001 schools or 11.8% of the total in the country. A significant number of these Russian schools were converted into schools in with both Russian and Ukrainian language classes. By 2007, 20% of pupils in public schools studied in Russian classes.
  Some regions such as Rivne Oblast have no schools with Russian only instruction left, but only Russian classes provided in the mixed Russian-Ukrainian schools. As of May, 2007, only seven schools with Russian as the main language of instruction are left in Kiev, with 17 more mixed language schools totaling 8,000 pupils, with the rest of the pupils attending the schools with Ukrainian being the only language of instruction. Among the latter pupils, 45,700 (or 18% of the total) study the Russian language as a separate subject in the largely Russophone Ukrainian capital, although an estimated 70 percent of Ukraine's population nationwide consider that Russian should be taught at secondary schools along with Ukrainian.
  The Russian Cultural Center in Lviv has been attacked and vandalized on several occasions. On January 22, 1992 it was raided by UNA-UNSO led by the member of Lviv Oblast Council. UNA-UNSO members searched the building, partially destroyed archives and pushed people out from the building. Their attackers declared that everything in Ukraine belonged to the Ukrainians, so the Moskals and the kikes were not allowed to reside or have property there. The building was vandalized during the Papal Visit to Lviv in 2001, then in 2003 (5 times), 2004 (during the Orange Revolution), 2005, 2006.
  After the Euromaidan events, regions with a large ethnic Russian population started anti-Maidan protest and separatist activity. After the new government cancelled the Legislation on languages in Ukraine, which allowed Russian language to be used on official level in areas where Russian-speakers formed a majority. The Supreme Council of Crimea announced the 2014 Crimean referendum, and sent a request to Russia to send military forces into the Crimea to "protect" the local population from the right-wing Euromaidan protesters, which marked the beginning of the 2014 Crimean crisis. Major Anti-Maidan protests took place in other Russian speaking major cities like Donetsk, Odessa, and Kharkiv. The council of the Donetsk Oblast voted to have a referendum to decide the future of the oblast.
  On 3 March, a number of people started storming Donetsk Oblast administrative building, waving Russian flags and shouting ″Russia!″ and ″Berkut are heroes!″. The police did not offer resistance. The council of Luhansk Oblast voted to demand giving Russian language the status of second official language, stopping ″persecution of Berkut fighters″, disarming Maidan self-defense units and banning a number far-right political organizations like Svoboda and UNA-UNSO. If the authorities failed to comply with the demands, the Oblast council reserved itself the ″right to ask for he
caption: Pro-Russian protesters remove a Ukrainian flag and replace it with a Russian flag in front of the Donetsk Oblast Regional State Administration building during the 2014 pro-Russian conflict in Ukraine.
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