before the mass recruitment since the start of the hot war for example were primarily russian-first language speakers
Before the war barely anyone outside the very far west of Ukraine spoke Ukrainian as a first language, even nowadays most rapid ukrainian refugees still speak russian as their first language and actually have to learn ukrainian. Using language/reported ethnicity will not give you a clear picture of how people in eastern and southern ukraine feel (like Bad Empanada claiming that because 60% something of Donbass called itself ukrainian in 2001, that means evul ruzzia is doing colonialism, mind you there is the legacy of the Ukrainian SSR and opposed to that is the NAFO SS Galicia based Ukraine and both sides use “Ukrainian” as identifier).
Before the war barely anyone outside the very far west of Ukraine spoke Ukrainian as a first language, even nowadays most rapid ukrainian refugees still speak russian as their first language and actually have to learn ukrainian. Using language/reported ethnicity will not give you a clear picture of how people in eastern and southern ukraine feel (like Bad Empanada claiming that because 60% something of Donbass called itself ukrainian in 2001, that means evul ruzzia is doing colonialism, mind you there is the legacy of the Ukrainian SSR and opposed to that is the NAFO SS Galicia based Ukraine and both sides use “Ukrainian” as identifier).