Are Ukrainians Really Just Russians?

It is a question a close friend and former student of mine in Ukraine would despise.

James Conway | October 30, 2026

It is a question a close friend and former student of mine in Ukraine would despise.

Well, she’s Georgian, really, but has lived in Kharkiv for years and speaks Russian fluently.

Its very premise, she might say, lends credence to Putin’s so-called “Special Military Operation,” which claims to “denazify” Ukraine, aka Novorossiya, and bring it back into the Motherland.

Indeed, Putin revealed as much when he stated, “I have said many times that I consider the Russian and Ukrainian peoples to be one people. In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours.”

Yet many Ukrainians do speak Russian, and Ukrainian itself can be viewed as a Russian dialect.

I shan’t delve into the sociolinguistic debate over dialect versus language, let alone Surzhyk, the kind of pidgin between Russian and Ukrainian. The distinction is politically charged, academically contested, and rarely straightforward. 

Suffice to say that both tongues belong to the broader East Slavic family.

Still, language is not merely a marker of identity. It can also be a tool of power, a means of passing, and a way of concealing one’s loyalties.

And, when imperialism and linguistic identity collide, as they often do, I find myself returning to literature, particularly stories of imperial intelligence work, cultural fluency, and divided loyalties.

From Kipling to Fleming: 007 and Konspiratsia

My favorite book is Rudyard Kipling’s Kim, set against the backdrop of the Great Game — the 19th-century struggle for influence between the British and Russian empires in Central Asia.

Kim, the protagonist, is the ultimate chameleon: fluent in multiple languages, shifting identities for intelligence work, yet torn between his devotion to his Tibetan lama and the British Empire.

I also adore Ian Fleming’s From Russia with Love, in which 007 works alongside Darko Kerim, the head of MI6’s Istanbul........

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