Quote Originally Posted by Hanna View Post
—What is the mothertongue of most people in Eastern Ukraine, i.e. Donetsk, Kharkov, Lugansk.
Russian. As well as in the most Ukrainian big cities including Kiev.

—Can they speak the other language and how hard is it - is it a sensitive issue / big deal?
There is no problem in reading/understanding Ukrainian but speaking is more difficult as almost noone in the East actually speaks Ukrainian and there is no practice.

Are there people there who actually regard themselves as Russian, like people in Crimea? Or do they regard themselves as Ukrainians with Russian as mothertongue?
When people here say "Russian" or "Ukrainian" mostly they don't mean nation (like it is in Europe). Mostly it means ethnic backgroung (=национальность) which is a formal parameter that doesn't depend on one's choice. You see, in USSR we had a paragraph in our internal passports "национальность" and it mostly was automatically defined as "национальность" of the father (as far as I remember). And it has nothing to do with either mothertongue or citizenship or self-identification. There is no such paragraph in contemporary passports but the habit persists. There is a tendency to mean actual citizenship by "Ukrainian" but it is not a mainstream yet.

—How can Kiev satisfy the demands of the protesters in Donetsk and is it necessary?
—What exactly are the goals of the protesters in Eastern Ukraine?
I don't know about their goals. I don't know personally any protester and info about their demands comes contradictory. The sane formulations I remember are "to join Russia" or "to have more decentralization - more rights for the regions". The first one depends on Poo's tanks and "green humanoids", not on Kiev. The second is actually already accepted by Kiev as a goal (before Crimean invasion). But it requires changes in Constitution that requires a national referendum. As far as I know referendum is impossible with a part of the country is occupied by the enemy. So I have no idea how exactly it can be overcome.

—Are they really being discriminated or are they just exaggerating?
Who is exaggerating? Russian TV just produces complete gibberish. What is discrimination? You can speak Russian wherever and whenever you like (unless you are a professional talking head in specifically Ukrainian-language TV show or like, but there are abundant Russian-language TV shows for you). There are more literature comes in Russian than in Ukrainian and Russian is actually way more widespread than literary Ukrainian (not accounting for all kind of dialects and mixtures). Positions of Russian in Ukraine are stronger than positions of the Ukrainian. The "only state language is Ukrainian" problem is a frantic attempt to save Ukrainian (as a national symbol) from complete vanishing (like it is going on with Belarussian in Belarus).

—Why are they so against the new government and the change, what exactly is it they fear?
I doubt they fear anything. Maybe they want Russian wages which are supposedly higher or just enjoy participating in disorders?

—How many are happy to be Ukrainians ans how many are hoping of a repetition of Crimea?
Happy? Nobody is happy. But there are people who understand that they are responsible for their lives and country. And there are many people who don't care where to live just want to live better. Maybe most stupid of the latter for some reason hope that uncle Poo will come and happily share with them his oil-and-gas incomes.

—Can Putin be trusted when he says that Russia will never enter Eastern Ukraine?
Well... before I relied on his sanity and common sense but after Crimean invasion I can expect everything.

—What is the economic situation for people in Eastern Ukraine. Are most OK, or really struggling to cope?
Depends on your standards. If compared to the first half of 1990-s we all are insanely rich. All who survived 1990-s.