Language policy in Ukraine

Language policy in Ukraine is based on its Constitution, international treaties and on domestic legislation. According to article 10 of the Constitution, Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine, and the state shall ensure the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life throughout the entire territory of the country. Some minority languages (such as Russian and Belarusian) have significantly less protection, and have restrictions on their public usage.

The 2012 law granted regional language status to Russian and other minority languages. It allowed the use of minority languages in courts, schools and other government institutions in areas of Ukraine where the national minorities exceed 10% of the population. The 2012 law was supported by the governing Party of Regions and opposed by the opposition parties, who argued that the law undermined the role of the Ukrainian language, violated Article 10 of the Constitution, and was adopted with an irregular procedure. Immediately after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, on 23 February 2014, the Ukrainian Parliament voted to repeal the law. This decision was vetoed by the acting President Turchynov. In October 2014, the Constitutional Court started reviewing the constitutionality of the 2012 law and declared it unconstitutional on 28 February 2018.

In April 2019, the Ukrainian parliament voted a new law, the law "On supporting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language". The law made the use of Ukrainian compulsory (totally or within quotas) in more than 30 spheres of public life, including public administration, electoral process, education, science, culture, media, economic and social life, health and care institutions, and activities of political parties. The law did not regulate private communication. Some exemptions were provided for the official languages of the European Union and for minority languages, with the exclusion of Russian, Belarusian and Yiddish. European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission)
Ukraine - Opinion on the Law on Supporting the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language
adopted by the Venice Commission at its 121st Plenary Session (Venice, 6–7 December 2019), CDL-AD(2019)032. The Venice Commission and Human Rights Watch expressed concern about the 2019 law's failure to protect the language rights of Ukrainian minorities. On 8 December 2023, the Ukrainian parliament passed a bill that claimed to have fixed this issues and was adopted in order to meet one of the European Commission’s criteria for the opening of Ukrainian European Union membership negotiations.

Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on 19 June the Ukrainian parliament passed two laws which placed restrictions on Russian books and music. The new laws ban Russian citizens from printing books unless they take Ukrainian citizenship, prohibit the import of books printed in Russia, Belarus and the occupied Ukrainian territories, and prohibit the reproduction in the media and public transport of music performed or created by post-1991 Russian citizens, unless the musicians are included in a "white list" of artists who have publicly condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine.

In June 2023, a bill for a as one of Ukraine's languages for international communication was introduced by president Zelenskyy. Among other things, the bill encourages use of Ukrainian subtitles rather than dubbing for imported English-language movies.

Overview

Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine, the Russian language has dwindled. In 2001 it remained one of the two most used languages for business, legal proceedings, science, artistry, and many other spheres of everyday life. According to the 2001 census, 67.5% of the citizens of Ukraine regarded Ukrainian as their native language, with Russian being considered the native language for another 29.6%. Various other languages constituted the remaining 2.9%.

Soviet era

During the Soviet era, the status of Ukrainian was legally codified in 1922, when Ukrainian and Russian were declared to be of "national significance" and schools were allowed to use them both in teaching; they were never adopted as official languages of Soviet Ukraine but had formally equal status as "generally used languages". In practice, however, Ukrainian was mainly a rural language and had lower prestige than Russian, which was the language of the educated urban society. After an initial phase of official commitment to Ukrainization in the 1920s and early 1930s, the Soviet era was marked by an increasing trend toward Russification. In 1938 the study of Russian was made obligatory and in 1958 the study of the mother-tongue was made optional. From 1959 to 1989, on average 60-70% of the population spoke Ukrainian and 20% spoke Russian; Yiddish was also widely spoken by the decreasing Jewish population (from 14% in 1959 to 3.9% in 1989).

1989 Law of the Languages

On 28 October 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the "Law of Languages". The Ukrainian language was declared the only official language, while the other languages spoken in Ukraine were guaranteed constitutional protection. The government was obliged to create the conditions required for the development and use of Ukrainian language as well as languages of other ethnic groups, including Russian. Usage of other languages, along with Ukrainian, was allowed in local institutions located in places of residence of the majority of citizens of the corresponding ethnicities. clarification needed''">Wikipedia:Please clarify">clarification needed''/sup> Citizens were guaranteed the right to use their native or any other languages and were entitled to address various institutions and organisations in Ukrainian, in Russian, or in another language of their work, or in a language acceptable to the parties.

The adoption of the "Law on Languages" preceded the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the law, with some minor amendments, remained in force in the independent Ukrainian state. Ever since, there have been discussions on the potential adoption as Russian as a co-official language alongside Ukrainian, particularly raising debates during presidential and parliamentary election campaigns. Leonid Kuchma had made raising the status of Russian one of his 1994 electoral promises, but did not deliver it during his presidency.

Ukrainian Constitution

The Constitution of Ukraine, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on 28 June 1996, states at article 10: "The state language of Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. The State ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life throughout the entire territory of Ukraine. In Ukraine, the free development, use and protection of Russian, and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine, is guaranteed".

2012 Law on the Principles of the State Language Policy

On 7 February 2012 members of the Verkhovna Rada Serhii Kivalov and Vadym Kolesnychenko (both from the Party of Regions) entered a bill (commonly called "Kolesnychenko-Kivalov language bill"), that would have given the status of regional language to Russian and other minority languages. It allowed the use of minority languages in courts, schools and other government institutions in areas of Ukraine where the national minorities exceed 10% of the population.

Supporters of the 2012 bill argued it would have made life easier for Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Opponents feared that the adoption of Russian as a minority language could have spread rapidly, challenging Ukrainian and causing splits between eastern and western Ukraine. In practice Russian at the time was already used widely in official establishments in Ukraine.

In May 2012 Vadym Kolesnychenko, one of the authors of the 2012 language law, claimed that the law was supported by several higher education bodies, scientists and NGOs. On 9 February 2013, Russian President Vladimir Putin awarded him and another author of the language law, Serhiy Kivalov, with the Medal of Pushkin for their "great contribution to the preservation and promotion of the Russian language and culture abroad".

Some say that the bill contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine, violates the Budget Code, and aims to annihilate the Ukrainian language. It suffered a criticism in the conclusions of state authorities and their departments: the Main Scientific-Expert Bureau of the Ukrainian Parliament (23 May 2012), the Parliamentary Committee on Culture and Spirituality (September 23, 2011), the Parliamentary Committee on Budget (3 November 2011), Ministry of Finance (9 September 2011), the Ministry of Justice (27 September 2011). The bill also failed to obtain the support of the specialized institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: the Linguistics Institute, the Institute of the Ukrainian Language, the Institute of political and ethno-national researches, the Shevchenko Institute of Literature, the Institute of State and Law, the Ukrainian linguistic-informational Fund, the Philology Institute of Kyiv University, and the Academy of Sciences of the High School of Ukraine.

Opinion adopted by the Venice Commission

In December 2011, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe issued an opinion on the draft law questioning whether the parallel use of Ukrainian and Russian was in compliance with article 10 of the Constitution: "the question remains whether ..there are sufficient guarantees, in the current Draft Law, for the consolidation of the Ukrainian language as the sole State language, and of the role it has to play in the Ukrainian multilinguistic society".

''Ukrayinska Pravda'' reported that the Venice Commission did not find in the draft law enough guarantees for the protection of the Ukrainian language, and that the commission had come to the conclusion that the proposed law was just "another tool of the election campaign" for the Party of Regions. Kolesnichenko, one of the authors of the law, claimed that the Opinion was "generally supportive", but the opponents noted that it contained strong criticism about the failure to protect the role of Ukrainian as the State language.

Fight in parliament

Prior to 24 May 2012, there were rumors that a revision of the legislation on languages would take place in parliament (the Verkhovna Rada) and that the Secretary of National Security and Defense would attend the session. Some 1,000 protesters gathered just outside the Verkhovna Rada building setting up another tent city. State law enforcement warned the protesters not to establish a tent city.

At the evening session, the parliamentary opposition in the Verkhovna Rada (Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defense Bloc) blocked the main tribune in parliament as some representatives from the Party of Regions surrounded the presidium. The speaker was forced to announce a break in the session. After the break, Member of Parliament Vyacheslav Kyrylenko read a statement of the united opposition not to conduct any hearings regarding language issues. After the law draft #10154 "On the state language of Ukraine" was not adopted onto the daily agenda, Kyrylenko withdrew his draft #9059 "Prohibition of narrowing the sphere of use of Ukrainian language" from a revision, while Kolesnichenko gave a presentation on his draft #9073. The head of the Committee On Issues of Culture and Spirituality Volodymyr Yavorivsky disclosed the decision of the committee to reject the bill #9073 as it was the decision of the committee's majority. He pointed to the fact that the law draft in fact will introduce a bilingual situation in number of regions. However, after a review, the bill was supported by the parliamentary majority which showed its support in adopting two state languages: Ukrainian and Russian. The parliamentary minority and the deputy group "Reforms for the Future" stayed in opposition to the bill. Parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn was forced to hastily close the session as further discussion descended into another fight leaving some members of parliament injured.

The Party of Regions released a statement to the press where it accused the opposition of impeding the enactment of a bill that protects some constitutional rights of millions of citizens of Ukraine. PoR leader in parliament Yefremov promised to revisit the issue once everything is stable.

Implementation

The bill was eventually adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on second reading on 3 July 2012; it was supported by the Party of Regions, the Communist Party of Ukraine and the Lytvyn Bloc, while it was strongly opposed by the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc and the Our Ukraine-People's Self-Defence Bloc. The bill was to come into force only after it was signed by Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and the Chairman of Parliament. But the Chairman of Parliament Volodymyr Lytvyn tendered his resignation on 4 July 2012. However, the Verkhovna Rada twice held votes of confidence in the speaker, and did not accept his resignation. On 31 July, Lytvyn signed the law. The bill was signed by President Yanukovych on 8 August 2012. The law came into force on 10 August 2012.

Since then, various Ukrainian cities and regions have declared Russian a regional language in their jurisdictions, these being the municipalities of Odesa, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhia, Sevastopol, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk and Krasny Luch; and the oblasts of Odesa, Zaporizhia, Donetsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv and Dnipropetrovsk. Hungarian has been made a regional language in the town of Berehove () in the Zakarpattia Oblast, " Moldovan" in the village of Tarasivtsi () in the Chernivtsi Oblast, and Romanian in the village of Bila Tserkva () also in the Zakarpattia Oblast. From then on, those languages could be used in city/Oblast administrative office work and documents. As of September 2012 there were no plans for such bilingualism in Kyiv. Chairman of the Supreme Council of Crimea Volodomyr Konstantinov stated in March 2013 that the August 2012 law had changed nothing in Crimea.

Attempted repeal of the law

On February 23, 2014, the second day after the flight of Viktor Yanukovich, while in a parliamentary session, a deputy from the Batkivshchyna party, Vyacheslav Kyrylenko, moved to include in the agenda a bill to repeal the 2012 law "On the principles of the state language policy". The motion was carried with 86% of the votes in favour—232 deputies in favour vs 37 opposed against the required minimum of 226 of 334 votes. The bill was included in the agenda, immediately put to a vote with no debate and approved with the same 232 voting in favour. The bill would have made Ukrainian the sole state language at all levels. Still, all the minority languages (including Russian) remain explicitly protected under article 10 of the Ukrainian Constitution. The repeal would also bring back into force the previous law on languages, which was in place in Ukraine for 23 years before July 2012 and was regulating the use of the minority languages.

However, the move to repeal the 2012 law "On the principles of the state language policy" provoked negative reactions in Crimea and in some regions of Southern and Eastern Ukraine. It became one of the topics of the protests against the new government approved by the parliament after the flight of Viktor Yanukovich.

Passage of the repeal bill was met with regret by the Secretary-General of the Council of Europe. The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities expressed concern over possible further unrest. He also proposed to give advice and facilitate discussions on new legislation, declaring that "we must avoid the mistakes made last time n 2012when unbalanced legislation was adopted without a proper dialogue in the Verkhovna Rada." The bill was also criticized by the Ambassador for Human Rights of the Russian foreign ministry. Bulgarian and Romanian foreign ministers evaluated it as a step in the wrong direction, and the Greek foreign minister expressed disappointment. The Hungarian foreign ministry expressed serious concerns, noting that the decision "could question the commitment of the new Ukrainian administration towards democracy". The Polish foreign minister called it a mistake. According to Uilleam Blacker writing for openDemocracy, the repeal bill contained no specific threat to the Russian language.

After urgently ordering a working group to draft a replacement law on February 27, acting President Oleksandr Turchynov declared on 3 March that he will not sign the repeal bill until a replacement law is adopted to "accommodate the interests of both eastern and western Ukraine and of all ethnic groups and minorities".Турчинов відмовився підписати рішення Ради про скасування закону про мови
Кorrespondent.net, 3 березня 2014 Since then the repeal bill has not been signed nor vetoed by the President, and its status has long remained "ready for sign".

On 7 April 2014, Batkivshchyna leader Yulia Tymoshenko stated she supported the 2012 language law. On 3 November 2014, newly elected president Petro Poroshenko declared that the language policy in Ukraine will be amended.

Law declared unconstitutional

On 10 July 2014, 57 parliamentary deputies appealed the Constitutional Court of Ukraine to review the 2012 law "On the principles of the state language policy". On 10 October 2014, the court opened the proceedings on the constitutionality of the law. On 14 December 2016, the Constitutional Court ended the oral proceedings, and on 13 January 2017, moved to the closed part of the process.KSU will continue to review "the law Kolesnichenko-Kivalov" behind closed doors
Ukrayinska Pravda (10 January 2017)CCU will continue to review "the law Kolesnichenko-Kivalov" January 19
Ukrayinska Pravda (13 January 2017) On 28 February 2018, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine ruled the law unconstitutional.

2015 ''Decommunization law''

In April 2015, the Verkhovna Rada passed a law banning communist as well as Nazi propaganda and symbols. The names of cities, villages, streets and squares that referred to communist slogans and leaders fell under the ban and had to be changed. According to Volodymyr Viatrovych, who had inspired the law, in October 2016 Ukraine's toponymy had undergone a complete process of decommunization, including in the Donbas region. Former Dnipropetrovsk became Dnipro, and Kirovohrad became Kropyvnytskyi.

The de-Russification of Ukrainian toponymy implied also the removal from railways and airports of any information board written in Russian; as of December 2016, all information had to be given only in Ukrainian and English. Free Ukrainian language courses for civil servants working in the Donetsk regional administration were organised, and from January 2017 Ukrainian became the only language of official and interpersonal communication in public institutions.

2016 Ukrainian language quotas in radio broadcasting

In June 2016, a new law was enacted requiring Ukraine's radio stations to play a quota of Ukrainian-language songs each day. At least a quarter of a radio station's daily playlist had to be in Ukrainian from then on, rising to 30% in 12 months' time and 35% a year after that. The law also required TV and radio broadcasters to ensure at least 60% of programs such as news and analysis are in Ukrainian. The law entered into force on 9 November, the national day for Ukrainian Language and Literacy. President Petro Poroshenko hailed the law calling on people to share their favourite Ukrainian song on social medias, while the pro-Russian Opposition Bloc criticised the law and said people had the right to decide for themselves what to listen to, and in which language. According to ''The Economist'', the passage of a law downgrading Russian in Ukraine could have helped "spark war in that country; Vladimir Putin has used it as evidence that Ukrainian nationalists are bent on wiping out Russian culture there."

In May 2017, Verkhovna Rada enacted an analogous law prescribing a 75% Ukrainian-language quotas in all television channels operating in Ukraine.

2017 Education Law

Ukraine's 2017 education law made Ukrainian the required language of study in state schools from the fifth grade on, i.e. at the basic secondary and upper secondary levels, although it allowed instruction in other languages as a separate subject, to be phased in 2023. Education in minority languages in kindergarten and primary school remained unchanged, but at secondary level, students could only learn their native languages as a separate subject. Additionally, from grade five onwards, two or more subjects could be taught in any of the languages of the EU, which include minority languages such as Hungarian, Polish and Romanian but not Belarusian, Yiddish and Russian.

The 2017 education law provoked harsh reactions in Hungary, Romania, Russia, Poland, Bulgaria and other countries. The Romanian parliament passed a motion condemning the law and warned that Ukraine could not proceed towards EU integration without respecting the language rights of national minorities. The Russian Duma and Federation Council also adopted a resolution lamenting the violation of the language rights of the Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine. The Hungary–Ukraine relations rapidly deteriorated over the issue of the Hungarian minority in Ukraine, as the education law was accused of being nationalistic and needlessly provocative.Hungary-Ukraine relations hit new low over troop deployment
". ''New Europe''. 26 March 2018. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko defended the law, claiming that "The law ensures equal opportunities for all ... It guarantees every graduate strong language skills essential for a successful career in Ukraine". Hungary is since 2017 blocking Ukraine's attempt to integrate within the EU and NATO to help the Hungarian minority in Ukraine.

On 7 December 2017, the European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission) stated that criticism of the law seemed justified, as the shift to all-Ukrainian secondary education could infringe on the rights of ethnic minorities. Moreover, according to the Venice Commission, allowing certain subjects to be taught in the official languages of the EU could discriminate against speakers of Russian, the most widely used non-state language. The Venice Commission formulated seven recommendations to the Ukrainian Government to amend the law; according to the new Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Ukraine has implemented six of these seven recommendations as of 2019.

In January 2020 the law was changed and made it legal to teach "one or more disciplines" in "two or more languages – in the official state language, in English, in another official languages of the European Union". All not state funded schools were made free to choose their own language of instruction.

According to the 2020 law until the fifth year of education all lessons can be completely taught in the minority language without mandatory teaching of subjects in Ukrainian. In the fifth year not less than 20% of the lessons must be taught in Ukrainian. Then every year the volume of teaching in the state language (Ukrainian) should increase, reaching 40% in the ninth grade. In the twelfth and final year at least 60% of education should be taught in Ukrainian.

The 2017 language education law stipulated a 3-year transitional period to come in full effect.New education law becomes effective in Ukraine
/ref>Про освіту
, від 05.09.2017 № 2145-VIII (Сторінка 1 з 7) In February 2018, this period was extended until 2023. In June 2023 this period was again extended to September 2024.

Lviv Oblast

In September 2018, Lviv Oblast Council introduced a ban on the public use of the Russian-language cultural products (movies, books, songs, etc.) throughout the Lviv Oblast until the full cessation of the occupation of Ukraine's territory. Human rights activists and lawyers called the law ill-defined, illegal, and unconstitutional. The Lviv Regional Council decision was successfully challenged in an Administrative Court, among others by the Chuhuiv Human Rights Group; however, on 14 May 2019, the judgment of the Administrative Court was revoked on technical grounds by the Cassation Chamber of the Supreme Court of Ukraine

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