Media stories about “Russian minorities who fear for their language rights and that they fear persecution under Ukraine” continue to circulate following the Kyiv Revolution. On 3/1/2014, Christiane Amanpour casually mentioned on CNN that the new Ukrainian government had “banned” the Russian language. Banned?… Nothing could be further from the truth.

Fact versus myth:

1. Ukraine is not ‘divided’ by language.

Russian is used and understood by almost all citizens in Ukraine. Most YouTube posts from Maidan were in Russian and many activists spoke in Russian to reporters. Most of the ‘Comments’ supporting Maidan posted to TV and newspaper websites were also in Russian.

Every regional and language minority in Ukraine took part in the fighting on the Maidan – a nationwide revolt, first and foremost, proclaimed against Yanukovych’s corrupt government of Donetsk gangsters and the crooked oligarchs. Killed activists were from all major Ukrainian cities, including the far east…