I am, frankly, mystified by President Zelensky's ongoing and intensifying counter-hearts and-minds campaign, a campaign which has been barely mentioned in mainstream Western media but whose latest installment is reported matter-of-factly and approvingly in the NEW YORK TIMES article transmitted below.
Some will recall that virtually the first act of the new American-selected-and-installed Ukrainian government after the anti-Russian coup in 2014 was to strip the Russian language of its status as one of the two official languages of Ukraine, a gratuitously Russophobic act which, unsurprisingly, immediately triggered the separatist rebellion in the majority-Russophone Donbass.
Presumably, President Zelensky believes that fueling an intense level of hatred of everyone and everything Russian will prove useful in keeping the population of western Ukraine onside for continuing the war over control of eastern and southern Ukraine "for as long as it takes".
However, if he genuinely expects to "liberate" any of the five eastern and southern oblasts annexed by Russia and to control and govern them afterwards, one would think that he would be seeking to make those living there who are linguistically and culturally Russian feel welcome and respected, not unwelcome and detested.
In this context, it is worth noting that, in addition to Ukraine's banning of the political parties historically most popular in the contested oblasts and its banning of the patriarchate of the Russian Orthodox Church and arrests of the church's leaders, a close advisor of President Zelensky recently stated that Ukraine is planning to hold "treason" trials for those in the contested oblasts who have "collaborated" with the Russian administrations there once Ukraine has "liberated" them from Russian control.
In light of President Zelensky's counter-hearts-and-minds campaign, a highly significant percentage of the Russophone populations of the contested oblasts must feel petrified at the prospect of being "liberated".
NOTE: It is not clear from the TIMES report whether, in accordance with the new law, current Ukrainian citizens who wish to remain Ukrainian citizens but who cannot demonstrate a "knowledge of Ukrainian language and history" deemed adequate and politically acceptable by the Ukrainian authorities will be stripped of their Ukrainian citizenship and rendered stateless.
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/22/world/europe/zelensky-russian-ban-ukraine.html
Zelensky Signs Ban on Russian Place Names in Struggle Over National Identity
The action late Friday was the latest in a series of steps by Ukraine to distance itself from a long legacy of Russian domination.
Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has signed two laws that strictly reinforce his country’s national identity, banning Russian place names and making knowledge of Ukrainian language and history a requirement for citizenship.
The moves late Friday were Ukraine’s latest steps to distance itself from a long legacy of Russian domination, an increasingly emotional subject since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began last year. They also show how forceful Kyiv’s government has become about protecting its cultural identity in a conflict shaped by President Vladimir V. Putin’s efforts to wipe it out.
Already, countless streets across Ukraine have been renamed and statues of Russian figures like Catherine the Great have come toppling down in what officials have called “decolonization” or “de-Russification” projects. While such efforts to scrub away old Russian names have been going on since the fall of the Soviet Union, they have picked up pace since the war began in February 2022.
A law that Mr. Zelensky signed on Friday prohibits using place names that “perpetuate, promote or symbolize the occupying state or its notable, memorable, historical and cultural places, cities, dates, events,” and “its figures who carried out military aggression against Ukraine.”
The law will come into force in three months, according to a statement posted on the Telegram messaging app by Ukraine’s Parliament, after which the local authorities will have six months to “free public space from the symbols of the Russian world.” A national board will draw up a list of what it considers questionable names and then local councils in cities and towns must change them. If elected members of the local bodies cannot agree, the law says that the head of that body will have the authority to change the name.
“It’s not about literature,” Mr. Kebuladze said on Saturday. “It’s about the imperialistic presence of Russia in our streets and our cities.”
He added: “We should read Tolstoy, we should investigate his literature. But why do we need to have a Leo Tolstoy Street in the center of Kyiv? (In March, Kyiv changed Leo Tolstoy Street to Hetman Pavlo Skoropadskyi Street, after a Ukrainian leader from the early 20th century.)
Mr. Kebuladze also welcomed the new citizenship law signed by Mr. Zelensky on Friday that requires knowledge of Ukrainian language and history.
Many Ukrainian citizens are native Russian speakers — including Mr. Zelensky. An estimated one in every three Ukrainians speaks Russian at home, according to researchers, but many of them — outraged by the violence of Russia’s invasion — have been switching to Ukrainian as a show of defiance.
Yet Mr. Kebuladze, who speaks Ukrainian, Russian and Georgian, said it was fine for people to continue to speak what they want at home.
“It’s not about private language,” Mr. Kebuladze said.
“We have only one state language, Ukrainian,” he added. “And if people want to become citizens, they should know this language. It’s part of our identity, our culture, our history.”
As important as identity is to Ukrainians, it has also been a huge part of Mr. Putin’s justification for the invasion. Before ordering his troops to cross the border last February, Mr. Putin accused Ukraine of trying to “root out” Russian language and culture. He cited the need to protect Russian speakers as part of his spurious justification for the war and has repeatedly asserted that Ukraine is not a real state and that the Ukrainians are not a real people, but actually Russian.
Russian troops retreated from Kherson in November, but took up positions just across the Dnipro River and have continued to relentlessly shell the city. For months after the retreat, remnants of Russification efforts still remained — like faintly visible signs on billboards that read: “Russia is here forever.”