The cries of "language suppression" are often used by kremlin propagandists to rally for war.

I do not care if the truth is inconvenient with Ukraine's narrative. All good propaganda is grounded in truth and this is no exception. While this is a good line for Russia to use it is also, quite frankly, the reality in Ukraine.

The government of Ukraine has been harassing the Russian speaking population for years. Most recently the 2019 "On provision of the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language" comes to mind. It has garnered criticism from organizations as varied as Radio Free Europe to the Council of Europe and you can believe me when I say that neither are pro-russian dis-information ops.

Other language minorities like the Hungarian population have also been outraged by Ukraine's language policies. This has been a large point of contention between Hungary and Ukraine.

If it was only Russia being outraged it'd be one thing but this is being criticized east and west alike.

Also, I while the article you linked was insightful its still worth noting the atlantic council is a pretty biased source being a very pro-west american think tank.

All I was saying is that the Russian speaking minority has animosity towards the government. Thats not me saying Russia is justified here. I was saying most would not be willing to fight for the defence of Ukraine and I hate to say it but if things do escalate here then time will show that is true.

Thats not their only spite though, a lot of the russian population has been showing concern over the last decade over the rehabilitation of nazi era collaborators. Posthumously awarding them and shielding the ultranationalistic and fascist elements of the far right. This has slowed a bit seeing as Zelensky himself is jewish but they represent such a large constituency that this is simply not something that is likely to fade away and the Ukrainian state is still openly supporting them in some aspects.

Others are simply russophiles who hate Ukraine post-euromaidan I won't try to hide it. Again here my line isn't that Russia is right here, just that you'd be a fool to think eastern Ukraine would resist invasion to the point of trying to run a pro-ukrainian insurgency.