War in Ukraine – Week 30

Partial mobilization in Russia and the threat of a nuclear war doesn’t change anything for us. Other than making us work even harder to stop them. But hopefully, they will change something in the minds of others.

Source: Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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A couple of comments about massive anti-war protests in Russia.
This is what a massive protest looks like. And the border lines of those who want to get out of the country are also pretty massive.
The war started 8 years ago. These are anti-mobilization protests. Here are some of the chants that are being used: “I don’t want to die for Putin, I don’t want to die for Kherson!” “Putin to the trenches!” ”Life to our children!”
Sounds to me like they just want the war not to affect them and their families. Which is fine, things finally got real for many of those who chose to ignore what was happening or even supported it.

Source: Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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Important facts about our language issue:
1. Ukrainian and Russian are different languages.
2. Ukrainian vocabulary is more similar to Belarusian (84%), Polish (70%), and Slovak (68%) than to Russian (62%).
3. First Ukrainian printed dictionary dates back to 1596. It included more than 1061 words. The next major vocabulary was printed in Kyiv in 1627 (about 7000 words).
4. Starting from the 18th century Russians tried to eradicate the Ukrainian language by banning everything they could, including Ukrainian names for babies. It survived through folk stories and songs.
5. From 1922 till 1933 our culture and language went through a period of revival known as Ukrainization. It ended with a literal bloodbath and extermination of Ukrainian intelligentsia (writers and teachers).
6. Back in 2001 67,7% of the Ukrainian population considered Ukrainian as their mother tongue. In 2012 it was 57% of the population and in March of 2022 – 76%. 20% of Ukrainians consider Russian as their mother tongue (a decrease from 42% in 2012).
7. July survey of the population of 10 mostly Russian-speaking regions that suffered the most from the full-scale invasion and are NOT occupied: before the invasion 73% of people there spoke Russian in their everyday life, and after the invasion – 56%. More inhabitants started speaking Ukrainian in all 10 regions, in some the percentage of Ukrainian-speaking people more than doubled.

Source: Nataliya Melnyk on Facebook

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