In my other articles about Ukraine and reasons for War in Ukraine I outlined that there are broadly two distinct communities in Ukraine. Ukrainophone natives who lived there before it became part of Russia and Russophone settlers brought in by Russian government. Similar unionists and republicans in Northern Ireland they do not get along with each other.
However, there are differences too. Northern Irish communities tend to be symmetric about their approach in expressing themselves. If Unionists paint their kerbs in colors of British flag, then Republicans do the same but use Republic of Ireland flag. Both paint large murals on walls praising paramilitaries from their side, fly their flags and so on. All that makes it easy to see the division and where each neighborhood stands on the issue.
In Ukraine communities in conflict are much less symmetric in their approach to this issue. Most forms of expression and actions are unique and peculiar to only one or the other. For example, only natives form and participate in territorial defense units, there are no Russophone equivalents. On the other hand, only Russophone settlers flee the war and become refugees, natives instead volunteer to help war effort.
There are also no clear visual identifiers as to what community any given person belongs as neither side use flags and other symbols as much as Northern Irish do. If they use any they do not explain that they represent their side but rather claim that it's a universally accepted symbol.
Because of that one can get skewered idea of the conflict as more often than not one would deal only with representatives on one of the sides. This is why full picture of this situation often eludes foreign observers no matter how much time they spend in the country.
Natives' attitude is somewhat easier to understand for a Western person. They think they are people with completely different language, culture and mentality compared to Russian. They see Russian refusal to acknowledge that as existential threat to their existence.
Because of that, they think they fight war of survival against their long-term adversary, Russia. They believe that Russia wants to destroy their language and culture and either completely assimilate them into Russian people or physically exterminate.
Past history events such as Holodomor and 19th century era bans on Ukrainian language back this point of view. Bucha Massacre, where Russian troops slaughter unarmed civilians, further convince them that Russian plans genocide or at its far not guaranteed they will not kill everyone if they take control of the country. That means this war is war of survival and best chance to stay alive is fight rather than seek peace or surrender.
Because of the above, natives fight with bitter determination. Civilians volunteer to join Territorial Defense Units or otherwise help war effort. Natives say things like "I will never forgive myself if I flee the country in such times". It's now or never for them, if they do nothing now, they will have no country to return to. They have but one country and will have no place to return to if Ukraine falls.
Because of that natives do not flee war; they stay in Ukraine and fight.
It's different for pro-Russian settlers. For them Ukraine is not a country but a territory of Russia. When Putin says that Ukraine is not a country, he repeats talking points of pro-Russian settlers in Ukraine.
If Ukraine is not a country, then there are no Ukrainians. Pro-Russian settlers think of themselves as Russians with a blue instead of red passport. Most Russians are willing to see them as fellow Russians. Russian government does the same and treats occupied areas as integral parts of Russia.
Because of the above for Russophones there is no country to defend at all. They do not volunteer to defend Ukraine, but they do join Russia forces (unless conscripted) or form their own anti-Ukrainian rebel units, DNR and LNR units were formed and paid by Russia.
Pro-Russian settlers not only do not love Ukraine but often hate it and think that Russia and other countries are much better that that Ukraine. Most of them think it is unfortunate that they stuck in this Ukraine and want out, to Moscow or to the West. That is why when war begun, a lot of them took this opportunity to escape Ukraine, to Russia or to the west.
Since pro-Russian settlers hate Ukraine, they, also hate its culture and everything related to it. They label a pro-Ukrainian sentiment, Ukrainian culture and even Ukrainian language fascism. When they say denazify, they mean destroy all that makes Ukrainians distinct and make them as indistinguishable from Russians as possible, cultural genocide.
As refugees they often repeat Putin's talk points, blame everything on Zelenski and the West. That might convince some that Putin is not a villain in this war, especially since there are no one to disagree with them as all natives are in Ukraine fighting.
Due to lack of visibility and clarity who is who, both communities like to exaggerate their numbers. Most actually believe they are the majority in the country and their opponents are, but small minority confined in the few oblasts on the far end of the country.
Both live in an echo chamber of their own views. Out of these pro-Russian settlers are by far most misinformed. Settlers do not even watch Ukrainian TV, preferring Russian instead. If a city has at least 15% of settlers, they often able to live in a bubble, only ever interacting with fellow Russophone pro-Russian settlers just like themselves.
To understand how that works one can look at Latvia. There many so called Latvian Russians completely unable to speak Latvian language. Because of that they live in a closed bubble, as they could only interact with fellow Russophone people. That distorts their opportunities in life and employment but also their views on society and world around them.
However in Latvia both communities are at least aware of each other's existence and know relative numbers each community has. In Ukraine both sides are oblivious to the actual numbers and both actually believe they are the majority who has right to represent the country and all who disagree with them are but tiny minority. Average Donbas inhabitant actually believes 90% of Ukraine speaks Russian language and mova is not used outside of few villages in Lviv oblast just because that is how it is in Donetsk Oblast.
A map of votes for OPZZh party illustrates this problem well. But few eastern oblasts vote for them, but there this party gets more than 50% of the vote. That makes those who vote for them think they are majority across the country, even if in reality they are but anomaly, confined in 2 and a half oblasts.
If pro-Russian side are oblivious to their real numbers, then pro-Ukrainian likes to think that those who live in Donbas used to speak Ukrainian until Russia converted them to Russian language. They seek to reverse this.
In reality Donbas was only settled in late 19th century by Orthodox migrants to then Russian Empire. These people did not spoke Ukrainian. Despite that Hrushevski marked that area as part of Ukraine when he declared independence in 1918. That is how the region became an anomaly, stuck in current Ukrainian borders.
Other areas like Mykolaiv, Kherson or Zaporizhia saw people from other parts of Ukraine moving there during 19th century as they are adjusted to Ukrainian provinces, that were already settled before Russian takeover. However Donbas lies too far east and as a result missed out on any settlers from Ukraine proper, making it uniquely monolingually Russophone area across whole Ukraine.
The fact that many southeastern Ukrainian towns have Greek names (all that end on -pol, like Mariupol or Melitopol) clearly hints to them being founded by Greeks who had to flee Ottoman Empire after series of unsuccessful uprisings against Ottoman Rule. Mix them with some Serbs and Bulgarians who fled then Ottoman Empire after their own unsuccessful uprisings and you will get the idea how it became the way it is. While some of these people grew loyal to Ukraine others still look to Russia, particularly those who had little contact with actual Ukrainians.
Thanks to continued echo chamber situation, both natives and settlers will never be able to see eye to an eye. They have to be separated from each other. Some land swaps, followed by population swaps to make sure all the pro-Ukrainian people end up on Ukrainian side of the border and pro-Russian ones on Russian one.
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