"Forget Crimea — that was never Ukrainian to begin with… It went from Tatars to Turks to Russians. I visited a few times in the 80’s — no one there spoke Ukrainian…" In the 80's, all the southern Ukraine was strongly Russified. It was hard to hear any Ukrainian word in Zaporizhzhia, Dnipro, Odesa. Crimea wasn't an exception. However, Crimea wouldn't have its agricultural sector if there were no Ukrainians settled from other regions by Soviet authorities in the 50s and 60s. Ukrainians lived there since 17th century as well or even earlier.