Conversation with the waitress at dinner tonight: Me: Excuse me, but are you Romanian? Her: No, I'm Ukrainian, but thank you for not guessing Russian.
And thank you from me too! This whole "are you Russian?" thing was mildly annoying forever, but it is especially grating once the war started. Even though people do not mean to offend, and it is quite an understandable assumption (unless it's followed by "Ukraine is part of Russia, right?". THAT is unacceptable). Mila Kunis visited her native city of Chernivci a few days ago, and people on Facebook unload on her for insisting to speak Russian. Even though that's what she grew up speaking, and even though vast majority there can speak Russian. War made people sensitive about things like that.