This subreddit is good. AskARussian. Usually good quality answers. Some answers are that it is the result of decades of propaganda.
https://www.reddit.com/r/AskARussian/comments/1fuab6n/hi_everyone_crimean_tatar_from_the_us_here_just/Hi everyone,
Crimean Tatar from the U.S here. Just wanted to ask some stuff about chauvinism I keep experiencing from recent Ukrainian immigrants.
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The problem is they keep making comments about how Russians are Mongols and keep making condescending comments about the Turkic minorities who live there and how Russia sends them to war(which is very possible). One of them enlightened me by letting me know Muscovites are 80% Mongol. I have a decent amount of mongol heritage and don’t really f’ing care at all. Are they aware that the Germanic countries used and still hold similar stereotypes against them?A lot of the problems they criticize Russia for, like poverty etc. also exist in their countries in worse degrees. One of them was talking about how Russians don’t have toilets in their homes and they were stealing washing machines and toilets from Ukraine??? Me and a friend of mine just looked at each other because that sounds ridiculous. I’ve seen videos and stories about Ukrainian villages that really make it seem like they are not that much better than Russia’s. They keep talking about how Russians have a bad reputation in EU and blah blah blah but the same exact stuff could be said about them and even the Polish too.
What the hell is up with these people? Are they really not self-aware of where they stand among other countries or is this just a case of “If I lie enough, I will believe it myself”.Also I’m half Anatolian Turkish and one of them kept talking sh*t about Turkey too, saying Istanbul is whatever (I mean if Istanbul a city of immense historic value which served as the capital of the Roman Empire for longer than Rome is “whatever” idk where that puts your Kiev).
I just wanna know where this empty superiority complex comes from? So hateful for no reason.
ANSWERS
Unexpectedly, the best formulated answer on the topic I came across on the Mongolian subreddit.
Ukrainian ultranationalism is rooted in the idea that the Ukrainians are the true inheritors of the original Kyivan Rus state, and that the Russians are Mongolicized mulattos who denied Ukraine its destiny as the natural leader of the Eastern Slavs. There are a lot of Ukrainians who will jump through any ideological hoop to loop back into this justification on why they are a separate people from Russians.
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That "the Russians denied Ukraine its destiny as the natural leader of the Eastern Slavs" is a very spot-on.In a sense, the most ideological of these people are not fighting against Russia. They are fighting to become Russia - the visionary Russia of their imagination, who will command, lead and oversee the Eastern and Central Europe, but do it rightfully - as true white Slavs, not a filthy asiatic Horde who sToLe EvEryThINg fROm uKRaiNE.
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These are just elements of propaganda, both domestic and targeted. Take for example "Russians are Muscovite-Mongol hordes". This stereotype is older than 90% of European countries and in many ways is just a relic of the past, but it exists well.
For the most part, this is just fiction. There are twice as many Turkic loanwords in the Ukrainian language as in the Russian language. The main square of Ukraine is called the Maidan. This is clearly not a Slavic or pre-Slavic word.
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Jkat17
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1d ago
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Didn't realise I was a mongol. I feel a lot cooler now. Wish I inherited the asian eyes for some added sexiness haha
There are estimated 50 MILLIONS direct descendants of Gengis Khan, so we might be brothers 
No wonder we all look the same to then
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It's not just the masses -- here's Zelensky's advisor basically calling Asians subhumans.
https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2023/Sep/13/ukraine-presidents-advisor-says-indians-chinese-have-weak-intellectual-potential-makes-u-turn-l-2614521.htmlUkraine President's advisor says Indians, Chinese have 'weak intellectual potential', makes U-turn later
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I realize that these sentiments/prejudices are common everywhere around the world, sometimes I sadly fall for them too. But I was really surprised to learn it was such a personal conflict for Ukrainians/Russians. I feel like I’m walking on thin ice whenever I’m talking about that region so I prefer not to at all.
They don’t even let me call Ukraine Eastern Europe, I’ve been corrected by a Polish-American(?) and a Ukrainian person that the “East” is Russia. They strongly self-identify as Central European or just plain European. I had to change my wording in a research paper because I referred to Ukraine as Eastern. These are really touchy subjects. I was referred to a study that calculated Ukraine as the geographic center of the European continent
