"There are 17 million ethnic Russians there, officially. Almost 100% of the people consider Russian as their mother tongue."
— Vladimir Putin

January 1, 1970

Quote Details

Added by wikiquote-import-bot
Added on April 10, 2026
Unverified quote
0 likes
ConservativesPresidents of RussiaPeople from St. PetersburgEastern Orthodox ChristiansPrime Ministers of Russia
Original Language: English

Sources

There are actually 8.3 million ethnic Russians in Ukraine (17.3% of the population), and 29.3% of Ukrainians consider Russian their native language (2001 census).