To mark the Day of Ukrainian Unity on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree that he said was intended to preserve the national identity and rights of Ukrainians living in six regions of Russia near the borders of modern Ukraine.
Essentially an instruction to the Ukrainian government to devise an action plan to preserve the national identity of the Ukrainian diaspora in Russia, with the help of experts, academics, and the Ukrainian World Congress, the document requires the proposals to be submitted to the Ukrainian National Security and Defence Council for review.
As well as studying crimes committed against Ukrainians living in Russia who have been subjected to persecution, deportation or forced Russification, the decree commits the Ukrainian government to establish a centre for the restoration and preservation of historical memory.
The centre will also bring together domestic and foreign academics, Ukrainians abroad and national associations overseas in an effort to counter Russian disinformation and debunk myths about Ukraine.
The decree also recommends “fostering ties between Ukrainians and nations subjugated by Russia.”
There are also plans to compile materials about Ukrainian statehood and its thousand-year history, reflecting the true history of ethnic Ukrainians in Russian regions they have historically inhabited, for educational curricula and textbooks, and to distribute those worldwide.
The decree continues that the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry should take into account the provisions of the document when developing a comprehensive strategy for the country when dealing with Ukrainians from all over the world.
After Russians and Tatars, Ukrainians are the third largest ethnic group in Russia according to the census of 2020–2021, accounting for 3% of the population, or 3.34 million people. That has been stable for decades, but there’s no point raising the problems facing the diaspora now. The invasion has unsurprisingly reduced people’s desire to be open about their identity in a society where saying “I’m Ukrainian” could be fatal. It is also time to abandon historical myths contending that there are still parts of the Kuban, the Russian Far East, Siberia and the lower Volga region with large populations of Ukrainians in them.
Assimilation has won out. Ukrainian associations within Russia have been refused registration and banned since 2010. The ban coincided with the election of the pro-Russian Viktor Yanukovych to the presidency in Ukraine. There is no paradox here. Putin’s thesis of a “united people” may not quite have promised to do away with state borders but it would like to turn them into little more than administrative boundaries once again.
We should really see this latest decree from Zelensky as an act of domestic policy, says Yuriy Kononenko, who co-founded Moscow’s library of Ukrainian literature in the early 1990s. Thanks to his efforts, the diaspora archive was deemed “illegal” in Russia and moved to Kyiv, where in autumn 2022 it was catalogued and sent for storage as air raid sirens went off in the capital.
“It is too late now to preserve the national identity of Ukrainians in Russia. There was no policy in the area. The results are sad,”
he says, adding that he sees Zelensky’s decree as “a symmetrical response to Putin announcing the annexation of historically Russian areas. The increase in research is a positive. We need to research the oppression of those who had the courage to remain Ukrainian in Russia for so many years, while remembering that they have Russian citizenship.”
Kononenko also notes that the decree calls Kuban in the North Caucasus a region historically home to Ukrainians, despite the fact that “the Ukrainian schools there didn’t close under Putin. They ceased to exist in the Krasnodar region in the 1930s.”
He nevertheless believes that such a patriotic approach to the preservation of Ukrainian heritage and identity should be welcomed by the Ukrainian World Congress as “it reminds the world that the historical boundaries of Ukraine were not always limited to its current borders.”
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Siku ya Umoja wa Ukraine, Rais wa Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky alitia saini amri ambayo alisema inakusudiwa kuhifadhi utambulisho wa kitaifa na haki za Wakraini wanaoishi katika mikoa sita ya Urusi karibu na mipaka ya Ukraine ya kisasa. "Hati hiyo ilitoa maagizo kwa serikali ya Ukraine kuunda mpango wa hatua za kuhifadhi utambulisho wa kitaifa wa Ukrainian diaspora nchini Urusi, kwa msaada wa wataalamu, wasomi, na Congress ya Dunia ya Ukrainian, na inahitaji mapendekezo kuwasilishwa kwa Baraza la Usalama wa Kitaifa na Ulinzi la Ukraine kwa ajili ya ukaguzi. """ "Kama vile kuchunguza uhalifu uliofanywa dhidi ya Ukrainians wanaoishi nchini Urusi ambao wamekuwa chini ya mateso, uhamisho au kulazimishwa Russification, amri hiyo ina wajibu wa serikali ya Ukraine kuanzisha kituo cha ""kurudisha na kuhifadhi kumbukumbu ya kihistoria.""" Kituo hicho pia kitakusanya wasomi wa ndani na wa kigeni, Waukrainia nje ya nchi na vyama vya kitaifa nje ya nchi katika juhudi za kukabiliana na habari mbaya za Urusi na kuondoa hadithi kuhusu Ukraine. "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika amri hiyo, ""kuendeleza uhusiano kati ya Ukrainians na mataifa ya Urusi"" ni muhimu kwa ajili ya kuandaa vifaa kuhusu Ukrainian taifa na historia yake ya miaka elfu, kuonyesha historia ya kweli ya Ukrainians kikabila katika mikoa ya Urusi, ambao wamekuwa kihistoria makazi, kwa ajili ya mipango ya elimu na vitabu, na kusambaza wale duniani kote." "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika amri hiyo, "" Wizara ya Mambo ya Nje ya Ukraine inapaswa kuzingatia masharti ya hati hiyo wakati wa kuendeleza mkakati wa kina kwa nchi wakati wa kushughulika na Ukrainians kutoka duniani kote. """ Baada ya Warusi na Watartari, Waukrainia ni kikundi cha tatu kwa ukubwa nchini Urusi kulingana na sensa ya 2020-2021 - wakifanya asilimia 3 ya idadi ya watu, au watu milioni 3.34 Hiyo imekuwa imara kwa miongo mingi, lakini hakuna maana ya kuinua matatizo yanayokabiliwa na diaspora sasa. uvamizi umepunguza hamu ya watu kuwa wazi kuhusu utambulisho wao katika jamii ambapo kusema "Mimi ni Kiukreni" inaweza kuwa mbaya. "Tunapaswa pia kuacha hadithi za kihistoria zinazodai kwamba bado kuna sehemu za Kuban, Mashariki ya Mbali ya Urusi, Siberia na mkoa wa chini wa Volga na idadi kubwa ya Wakraini ndani yao. """ Ulinganisho umeshinda. Mashirika ya Ukraine nchini Urusi yamekataliwa usajili na kupigwa marufuku tangu 2010. Marufuku hiyo ilifanyika wakati ambapo Viktor Yanukovych, ambaye ni mshirika wa Urusi, alichaguliwa kuwa rais wa Ukraine. Hakuna jambo lisilo la kawaida hapa. "Mtazamo wa Putin wa ""watu walioungana"" huenda usikuhakikishia kabisa kuondoa mipaka ya serikali, lakini ungependa kuigeuza kuwa zaidi ya mipaka ya kiutawala tena." "Hii ni hatua ya kisiasa ya ndani,"" alisema Yuri Kononenko, mwanzilishi wa maktaba ya Moscow ya fasihi ya Kiukreni." "Kwa sababu ya juhudi zake, kumbukumbu ya diaspora ilionwa kuwa ""isiyo halali"" nchini Urusi na kuhamishwa kwenda Kiev, ambapo katika vuli ya 2022 ilichapishwa na kutumwa kwa kuhifadhiwa wakati sireni za shambulio la hewa zilipopigwa katika mji mkuu." <unk>Ni kuchelewa sana sasa kuhifadhi utambulisho wa kitaifa wa Ukrainians katika Urusi. Hakukuwa na sera katika eneo hilo. Matokeo ni ya kusikitisha, "anasema, akiongeza kwamba anaona amri ya Zelensky kama "jibu la usawa kwa Putin kutangaza kuunganishwa kwa maeneo ya kihistoria ya Urusi. Ongezeko la utafiti ni jambo zuri. "Tunahitaji kuchunguza ukandamizaji wa wale ambao walikuwa na ujasiri wa kubaki Ukrainian katika Urusi kwa miaka mingi, wakati kukumbuka kwamba wana uraia wa Urusi. ""Kononenko pia anasema kwamba amri inaita Kuban katika Kaskazini Caucasus mkoa wa kihistoria nyumbani kwa Ukrainians, licha ya ukweli kwamba ""shule za Ukrainian huko si kufungwa chini ya Putin.""" "Kama ilivyoelezwa katika makala ya kwanza ya jarida la ""Novaya Gazeta,"" ""Ukrani"" ni ""mwisho wa miaka ya ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa ukanda wa uk """Tulilazimika kuondoka nchini kwetu ili tuendelee kufanya kazi yetu, kuwaambia wasomaji wetu juu ya kile kinachoendelea nchini Urusi, Ukraine na Ulaya." Tutaendelea kupigana dhidi ya vita na udikteta. Tunaamini kwamba uhuru wa kujieleza ndio dawa bora dhidi ya udhalimu. Tutegemeze kifedha ili kutusaidia kupigania amani na uhuru.