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Analyst: many people in Western Ukraine loyal to Russia

SIMFEROPOL, March 16, 15:34 /ITAR-TASS/. A very large share of the population in Western Ukraine is loyal to Russia and the Russian Language, the director of the Russian Institute of Strategic Studies, Leonid Reshetnikov, has told ITAR-TASS in an interview.

“I believe that the Banderovites have support from no more than ten percent of Ukraine’s population,” Reshetnikov said. He voiced the certainty that “a considerable share of Western Ukrainians are loyal to Russia, the Russian-speaking population and the Russian language.”

He pointed out that one should make a clear distinction between different parts of Western Ukraine, for instance, the Lvov Region and Ivano-Frankovsk, on the one hand, and the Transcarpathia, on the other.

“As you may remember, when the decision was made to cancel the status of Russian as a regional language, one of the Ukrainian publishers said at once ‘we have never published books in Russian, but now we shall start doing so as a sign of protest’,” Reshetnikov recalled.

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Ukraine exhausted, needs constant money flow from outside — defense official

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Russia discourages use of UN sanctions for interference in African affairs — envoy

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