Kharkov resident Hamlet Zinkovsky, like his parents, grew up speaking Russian. But when Russian President Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, it was the final push that forced Hamlet to completely switch to Ukrainian, writes The Guardian.

“Unfortunately, I grew up speaking Russian, but it’s not nice to speak the same language as the army that is destroying the territory of our country,” says 35-year-old street artist Hamlet Zinkovsky, widely known to Kharkiv residents, who usually call him simply by.

The switch to Ukrainian is part of a larger journey towards a more pronounced Ukrainian identity for Zinkovsky, shared by many in the predominantly Russian-speaking areas of eastern and southern Ukraine.. This is a process that has become more visible in the last three months, but has been brewing for several years..

As a young artist, Zinkovsky had an old dream: an exhibition in Moscow. Kharkiv is close to the border with Russia and has long been almost entirely Russian-speaking. Culturally, Moscow seemed to be the center of the universe.. But when Zinkovsky finally got into the gallery in 2012, he was horrified..

“They were dismissive of Kharkiv and Ukraine, and, frankly, I thought: fuck them,” the artist said..

Zinkovsky returned to Kharkiv and focused on the Ukrainian art scene.

After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the artist and a few friends started trying to speak Ukrainian. Now he has completely switched to the Ukrainian language, and for the first time introduces political and patriotic themes into his art..

The language issue is something that arises in Kharkov again and again. Interior designer Oleksandra Panchenko, 22, said she has been trying to improve her Ukrainian since 2014, but admitted that she still often communicates in Russian with friends..

However, she is sure that by the time her children are born, she will be fluent enough to speak only Ukrainian at home..

“I grew up in a Russian-speaking family, my children will grow up in a Ukrainian-speaking one,” Panchenko said..

Back in 2014, “separatist sentiments” partially began to appear in Kharkiv, and some people counted on the quick annexation of Crimea and wondered if it would not be better for all of Eastern Ukraine as part of Russia. But eight years of observing deplorable living conditions in the territory occupied by the pro-Russian illegal armed groups “L/DPR” weakened these sentiments, and the Russian invasion almost completely extinguished them..

Panchenko, who painted her nails blue and yellow and described herself as a staunch patriot, guessed about the political mood of Kharkovites before the war, based on a wide circle of acquaintances.. According to Panchenko, about 10% of the city once had aggressively pro-Russian sentiments.. According to her, 30% of the city had patriotic sentiments: “Ukraine, Ukraine, Ukraine”, and 50% were “neutral - they felt like Ukrainians, but not so much”.

Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine has pushed people of this "

Zinkovsky drew slogans on buildings damaged by Russian missiles. He also changed the sign for Pushkin Street and renamed it British Street, which he says is a recognition of British military support for Ukraine..

Geographical and cultural differences within the country have been one of the reasons why Putin and other Russian leaders have tried to claim that Ukraine is an " Now they see that their bloody invasion has done more than anything to unite different parts of Ukraine under a common identity in opposition to Moscow..

The Russian invasion both left people with a "

In the early days of the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree banning the activities of a number of pro-Russian parties, and one of the country's most prominent pro-Russian politicians, Viktor Medvedchuk, was arrested.

Medvedchuk, whose daughter is Putin's goddaughter, has long been regarded in Kyiv as the man of the head of the Kremlin.. But even some of his close associates tried to "

" But while this may indicate “cynical self-preservation” at work, it also makes sense that people had to make a choice: side with Ukraine, which is fighting for the right to exist, or side with Russia, which is launching rockets..

For many, this is an easy choice, and by launching the invasion, Putin has deprived Russia of most of its “fans” in Ukraine..

In addition to strengthening feelings of Ukrainian identity among politicians and the general population in the south and east of the country, the war also contributed to increasing respect for these territories in the “patriotic fortresses” of western and central Ukraine, where some doubted the loyalty of parts of the east, especially after 2014..

[see_also ids\u003d"

In Ukraine, there are more and more proposals not to recruit classes for the study of the Russian language, and the Ministry of Education has promised to assess the need to study Russian literature in schools. However, in some cases, the Russian language will be taught in Ukrainian educational institutions, explained Educational Ombudsman Sergei Gorbachev.

According to him, if all parents in the class agree that the curriculum should include the Russian language as a subject of a variable component, then this subject can be taught.