Re: Ukrainian local board

there is a simple explanation to this: 100% of ukrainians understand and can speak russian

It's not really true. About 30-35% of Ukrainians can't speak Russian on comfortable level. And it's about 15 millions of people. And as you mentioned above some people started to refuse to communicate in Russian because of the war. Yes, it's politically motivated but it's their right to do so.

Can't or won't?
No point creating a special section for people that can use another if they want to. Politics is no reason what so ever

Can't. If you go to the western part of Ukraine you will find out that 90% people don't speak russian and a lot of them don't understand it either. In central part it's 50/50. I think everybody understand but a lot of people use ukrainian in their daily life there. And even on the eastern part I know a lot of people use ukrainain instead of russian. If you're really interested in this I can give you couple of examples, but it's off-topic, you know.