Since the last census in 2001, Ukraine has undergone two national revolutions, withstood Russian invasion and annexation of its territory, and seen approximately two million people displaced by war. This helps fuel Kremlin-sympathetic narratives in the international information arena that have little basis in the evolving Ukrainian realities of today. Outdated information about the number and location of ethnic Russians and native Russian-speakers in Ukraine is frequently weaponized as part of Moscow’s ongoing information war. Putin and other senior Kremlin figures have regularly justified Russian intervention in Crimea and eastern Ukraine’s Donbas region as a means of “protecting Russian-speakers” from a supposedly intolerant Ukrainian state. It is a common trope in pro-Kremlin narratives that Russian-speakers in Ukraine are sympathetic to Moscow. The lack of recent reliable nationwide data about the citizenry of Ukraine has opened a gaping rhetorical hole into which misinformation can proliferate. ![]() Yet the use of 21-year-old demographic data highlights Ukraine’s damaging failure to conduct a census in over two decades. On the contrary, the newspaper frequently dispels false Kremlin claims about Ukraine. It is highly unlikely that the Washington Post deliberately aimed to spread Russian disinformation. ![]() Just as problematic was the map’s use of census data from 2001, the most recent year Ukraine counted its citizens. Coupled with a caption repeating Russian President Vladimir Putin’s claims to be “defending Russian-speaking Ukrainians,” the graphic suggested that language correlates to geopolitical allegiance in Ukraine. A map of Ukraine recently published by the Washington Post that claimed to show the percentage of “native Russian speakers” across the country drew widespread anger.
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