[jcranmer]

> people who considered themselves the same as Russians including young Zelensky, whose first language is Russian.

I think this is one thing that Russians are incredibly confused by: Russian-speaking does not imply that someone sees themself as Russian. The great analogy here is in Ireland: the vast majority of Irish are English-speaking monoglots, not Irish-speaking. And yet the Irish do not want to be part of Britain, and fought several rather violent conflicts towards that end. In Ukraine right now, Russian-speakers are switching to speaking Ukrainian to emphasize the degree to which they do not want to be seen as Russian.