According to surveys from 2012, 2017 and 2022, the Ukrainians who considered Russian as their native language dropped steadily from 25% to now 6%. “There has been a drastic increase of the use of Ukrainian in the previously largely Russian-speaking south and east of the country,” says a researcher. It is a case, he said, of “language as resistance – they are using language to resist aggression and the imperialism that they think underlies that”.