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There is a major flaw in his logic, however.
Errol Musk, father of tech billionaire Elon Musk, has sparked controversy after comments made during a visit to Russia suggested Ukraine should be part of the Russian Federation.
Speaking to the pro-Kremlin outlet Komsomolskaya Pravda, Musk said he admires Ukrainian people but not their leadership. “I know good people from Ukraine, but I am not a fan of its government,” The Daily Express reports.
He added: “Meeting Ukrainians, I noted that they all speak Russian. To me, they are all like Russians.” He concluded, “I don’t quite get what the problem is… they really should be part of the Russian Federation.”
That logic, however, has a major flaw.
Bilingual country
Ukraine is a bilingual country, and the educational system has long taught Russian in the same way several European countries teach English alongside their respective native languages.
The Ukrainian constitution from 1996 even protects Russian as a national minority language, but that all changed in 2017.
Following the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, the Ukrainian parliament passed the 2017 Law on Education, which aimed to phase out Russian-language education.
This means that essentially every adult in Ukraine has been taught Russian while growing up, explaining why it is so widely spoken.
As a note, Errol Musk is from South Africa, which has 11 official languages, including English.
A long history of Russian control
For centuries, several territories of Ukraine have been under Russian control at various times.
In 1667, part of northern Ukraine was incorporated into the Tsardom of Russia, and in the 18th century, most of Ukraine fell under Russian control.
The Russian Revolution in 1917 offered a brief period of independence for Ukraine before it became part of the Soviet Union in 1922.
Sources: The Daily Express, Komsomolskaya Pravda, Encyclopaedia Britannica
