In the following sentence the phrase ‘native Ukrainian speakers of Russian’ refers to people who speak Russian as their native language, right?
Native Ukrainian speakers of Russian, who constitute at least a third of the population, are uncomfortable or even scared to use their mother tongue.
It’s not really clear to me. Splitting up “native speakers” removes the strong collocation meaning that we usually assign it in this group.
Is this referring to “Ukrainian” as a nationality or a language?
Does the context tell us that they are afraid to speak Ukrainian or Russian?
I read this sentence, by itself, as “Native Ukrainians who speak Russian…”, though this might take a different meaning based on the context.
Your interpretation would fit “Ukrainian native speakers of Russian…”
I read it as:
Native Ukrainian (born in Ukraine)
Speakers of Russian (they speak Russian)
This makes sense in the context. They are afraid of repercussions for speaking their mother tongue in Ukraine.