I have spoken to both, but that will always be anecdotal. For Russians this is pretty much always the case so far as I can tell, they don’t see Ukrainians as a separate people at all. And yes, it is also true of some Ukrainians. Yet there is a very large contingent of Ukrainians whose entire identity hinges on them hating and distancing themselves from Russians. A major aspect of the tensions between eastern and western Ukraine was that the latter (after fascists solidified their power in the 2014 coup) banned the speaking of the more traditional Russian way of speaking. The western Ukrainian government also banned (and destroyed) about 19 million books for either being in the Russian language, being Soviet literature, or for covering history they don’t like. There are many Ukrainians including the vast majority of those who have political power in the west, who not only deny that they are the same “(ethnic) people” as Russians, but who vociferously insist that Russians are lesser and to be demonized, even the ones who are literally Ukrainian but identify as being Russian-heritage people (as people in eastern Ukraine tend to identify). Your comment completely glosses over this very apparent and very consequential fact.
I don’t know any Ukrainians who claim, as you say, that Russians are ‘lesser’ in an ethnic sense. It’s always out of contempt for their love of imperialism/subjugation/nationalism and never something ‘genetic’
Do you think you could visually distinguish a Russian from a Ukrainian?
You might want to enlighten yourself by talking to some Ukrainians and Russians though.
They almost invariably see themselves as the same (ethnic) people
I have spoken to both, but that will always be anecdotal. For Russians this is pretty much always the case so far as I can tell, they don’t see Ukrainians as a separate people at all. And yes, it is also true of some Ukrainians. Yet there is a very large contingent of Ukrainians whose entire identity hinges on them hating and distancing themselves from Russians. A major aspect of the tensions between eastern and western Ukraine was that the latter (after fascists solidified their power in the 2014 coup) banned the speaking of the more traditional Russian way of speaking. The western Ukrainian government also banned (and destroyed) about 19 million books for either being in the Russian language, being Soviet literature, or for covering history they don’t like. There are many Ukrainians including the vast majority of those who have political power in the west, who not only deny that they are the same “(ethnic) people” as Russians, but who vociferously insist that Russians are lesser and to be demonized, even the ones who are literally Ukrainian but identify as being Russian-heritage people (as people in eastern Ukraine tend to identify). Your comment completely glosses over this very apparent and very consequential fact.
I don’t know any Ukrainians who claim, as you say, that Russians are ‘lesser’ in an ethnic sense. It’s always out of contempt for their love of imperialism/subjugation/nationalism and never something ‘genetic’
Do you think you could visually distinguish a Russian from a Ukrainian?
Yeah it’s even more ridiculous to be racist towards only one of them.