The prorplem is they see a language as nothing but just a way to speak.

That's what Roman said: "I can't find a reason to change my language."

If such romans understood that a language is the issue of their nation's existence (!), maybe they would change their mind. russians understand a language's role and power, having been banning, genociding, killing us for the Ukrainian language for centuries, erasing it from our ancestors' minds, rewriting dictionaties, making Ukrainian, as Dmitry said, "villagers language of uneducated people," firing from jobs for speaking Ukrainian so people had to switch to russian, and so on, and so forth -- so that today Roman could call russian "a part of his identity."

(https://medium.com/@olesia-filipenko/ukrainian-language-400-years-of-linguocide-e6ae780f6d56)

But Roman and his likeminders choose to find excuses to stay where they are, despite russians dropping bombs on their heads and saying it directly that they want to destroy everything Ukrainian. They are lazy to leave their comfort zone for a month or two to finally say no to their colonialistic past (unless they are pro-russian pigs, of course, and it's okay for them to support evrth destructive russia brings). They are hiding behind the backs of rissian-speaking guys in the trenches instead.

Unless you are in those trenches, Roman and Co, you have no moral right to say so. Thanks to those guys, you are alive and can freely speak and say what you want. Not only are they protecting your ass, but should they also hold responsibility and serve as an excuse for your unwillingness to change?

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Thank you for this article, Craig! Feel free to add my response to it, if you want. (I'm a Ukrainian, originally from the Eastern part (Donbas), now in Kyiv, and I have A LOT to say on the topic.)