Russian Minority in Ukraine – Current Challenges

Mniejszość rosyjska na Ukrainie – współczesne wyzwania

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to attempt to present challenges faced by the Russian minority residing in Ukraine from the Polish perspective. The presence of national minorities in various countries throughout the world is not an isolated phenomenon. However, looking at problems that they must face shows that national minorities do not have it easy anywhere. Union laws and other national and international regulations on the one hand emphasize care for minorities and their rights. On the other hand, a lot of challenges can be observed that minorities need to address depending on many different factors. This is an important element of cultural security of representatives of individual minorities but also of the cultural security of the majority. The basic issue discussed in the paper is current challenges faced by the largest national minority in Poland’s neighbour. It tries to present both the historical context and the identity determinants associated with language or religion. The Crimea context has also become an important aspect, which is crucial to perceiving the Russian minority in Ukraine. The presented contexts are modern challenges that the Russians in Ukraine need to tackle in the face of cultural security of the state in which they are currently located and their own cultural security. The scholarly novelty of the paper involves looking at the issue of the Russian minority in Ukraine from the Polish perspective. The specific feature of this article consists in a presentation of i.a. an analysis of statistical data and opinions on the Russians residing in Ukraine but seen from the perspective of Poland as their neighbour. Conclusions. The specific situation occurring in Ukraine has shown that Ukraine’s national identity cannot be based on solely ethnic contexts. Ukraine’s identity needs to be looked at from a broader perspective, going deeper into territorial and civil criteria. It is them that determine and will continue to determine Ukraine’s self. The numbers of the Russian minority in Ukraine still impact the latter’s identity. Therefore, it needs to be observed and explored to understand and better shape relations between the majority and the minority. The context of cultural security, the aim of which is to examine the country’s future in the context of its coherent functioning, is also not unimportant.