Ukrainian diaspora is a complex social phenomenon . In particular, there is a conditional division into eastern and western diasporas, which were formed in different historical contexts and have some features of modern functioning. Among the eastern part of the Ukrainian diasporas, the Russian one is the most numerous, at the same time, it is also the largest in the world. However, on the way to preserve their national identity, Ukrainian organizations of the Russian Federation are constantly faced with many negative trends, and today it should be frankly recognized that the Ukrainian diaspora in Russia is going through a deep crisis.
citizens of Russia who consciously identify themselves as ethnic Ukrainians in the Russian Federation (according to the results of the 2010 census), and there were 2 million 940 thousand (according to the results of the 2002 census). In fact, there are many more of them. They are the third largest ethnic group (after Russians and Tatars), and the second largest ethnic group that does not have its own territorial autonomy in the Russian Federation. In addition, about 2 million labor migrants are constantly here. The reduction in the number of Ukrainians by a million over the course of eight years testifies to the irreversible processes of assimilation and destruction of the Ukrainian diaspora in Russia.
Assimilation is the main enemy of national identity, and it is much harder for Ukrainians in Russia to fight it than for their brothers living in other countries (primarily Western), because there they mainly communicate in their native language, unite around their churches; Ukrainian communities are more closed and therefore less prone to assimilation. In Russia, everything is exactly the opposite .
There are several reasons that led to the current crisis.
First: the traditional attitude of the Russian authorities to the Ukrainian issue ─ everything remains the same as a hundred or two hundred years ago.
Second: complex Ukrainian-Russian interstate relations and, as a result , Russia’s military aggression against Ukraine in the form of a “hybrid war”.
Third: the mental heterogeneity of the Ukrainians in Russia and the organizations that exist here.
Fourth: insufficient support by the Ukrainian state of public associations of Ukrainians in the Russian Federation in defending their interests aimed at preserving national identity, which is required by the Constitution of the state.
Outcome ─ the search for extremist literature in Ukrainian libraries and their subsequent closure in 2004, and after 6 years, the liquidation by the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of both all-Russian public organizations: the Association of Ukrainians of Russia (UR) in 2012 and the Federal National Cultural Autonomy of Ukrainians of Russia (FNKA UR) two years earlier, as well as the creation by the Kremlin instead of the latter ─ pseudo-Ukrainian autonomy with the same name, but far in spirit from all Ukrainian. And the new All-Russian public organization “Ukrainian Congress of Russia” (UKR), created in May 2012 instead of the ESD, was twice refused registration by the Ministry of Justice.
The oppression of the Ukrainian movement in the Russian Federation did not end there: quite recently, the Russian authorities included both world diaspora superstructures – the World Congress of Ukrainians (WCU) and the Ukrainian World Coordinating Council (UWCS) – into the so-called “patriotic stop list of undesirable organizations” (foreign agents). This jeopardized the activities of five regional public organizations in Russia, which were admitted to the VKU three years ago.