Does Kharkiv Want to Be Part of Russia?

If Kharkiv, the city where I grew up, becomes occupied by Russian invaders, that will be a personal tragedy to me. We keep hearing on the news here in the US that the Russian-speaking Kharkiv wants to become part of Russia. It’s impossible to convince anybody that being a Russian-speaker doesn’t necessarily mean one wants to live in Russia, which is strange since nobody seems to assume that every English-speaker in the world wants to see his or her town invaded by England.

Today, after the Russian terrorist groups have been beaten back and, at least temporarily, squeezed out of Kharkiv, there was nobody but actual Kharkovites to show up for a protest in support of Kharkiv separating from Ukraine and becoming part of Russia. This is what the protest looked like:

Here is also a video of the protest.

I can also repeat what I’ve been saying all along: there is no division among Ukrainians. The number of people in the country who are interested in becoming part of Russia is not large. This minority is not interested in doing absolutely anything to make this fantasy become real. It’s a fantasy that they entertain after a few drinks and it doesn’t motivate them to engage in any actions. Everything we’ve been hearing on the news about the clashes, the wounded, the kidnapped, etc. is organized by the Russian special forces. The second the Russians are forced to leave, everything goes back to normal.