Slavs
Slavs are the largest ethno-linguistic group in Europe. Present-day Slavic people are classified into East Slavs (chiefly Belarusians, Russians, Rusyns, and Ukrainians), West Slavs (chiefly Czechs, Kashubs, Moravians, Poles, Silesians, Slovaks and Sorbs), and South Slavs (chiefly Bosniaks, Bulgarians, Croats, Macedonians, Gorani, Pomaks, Montenegrins, Serbs and Slovenes).
Southern Ukraine
Noticeable cultural differences in the region (compared with the rest of Ukraine, except Eastern Ukraine) are more "positive views" of the Russian language and of Joseph Stalin and more "negative views" of Ukrainian nationalism. In the 1991 Ukrainian independence referendum, a lower percentage of the total electorate voted for independence in Eastern and Southern Ukraine than in the rest of the country.
In a poll conducted by Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in the first half of February 2014, 19.4% of those polled in Southern Ukraine believed "Ukraine and Russia must unite into a single state"; nationwide this percentage was 12.5.