Many writers and publishers have ditched Russian language in favour of Ukrainian in response to invasion

Vladimir Putin said he annexed Crimea and much of the Donbas region to “save” its Russophone population. The claim infuriates Volodymyr Rafeyenko, a distinguished Ukrainian novelist who was born in Russian-speaking Donetsk and who wrote and published entirely in Russian until ten years ago.

“It was an out and out lie, aimed at a western audience," Rafeyenko says aboht Putin’s comments. "My conscience began to hurt. I was 46 years old and didn’t know Ukrainian. I decided to learn it to a level where I could speak and write it.”