Last year, on April 25, 2019, the Verkhovna Rada adopted a sweeping language law that elevated the status of Ukrainian in nearly every facet of life.
A solid majority of 278 lawmakers voted for the bill that makes Ukrainian the sole language in all government activities and for officials while performing official duties.
The law also ensured Ukrainian dominance in the public sphere of media, culture and education. However, the law does not apply to private communication or language used in religious ceremonies.
Overcoming centuries of oppression by its neighbors, which continues to be felt today, the Ukrainian language has become a symbol for the country’s struggle for independence and a key component of identity. Russian still dominates as the lingua franca in print and online media, as well as in commerce, where menus, labels and outdoor signage appear mostly in Russian.
After voting for the final version of the bill, national deputies sang the national anthem. This was outgoing President Petro Poroshenko’s last legislative legacy before President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was sworn in on June 3. The law went into effect on June 16, 2019, two months after the law was officially published.
Mr. Poroshenko noted that the law is not meant to “squeeze any other language,” but is more “about protecting our language. For no place, except Ukraine, will it be protected.” Mr. Zelenskyy was critical of the law, adding the Ukrainian language should be developed through incentives and positive examples, rather than with “prohibitions and punishments.”
Ukrainian is the mandatory language of instruction in education from fifth grade onward, but the law does not prohibit private institutions from teaching minority languages such as Hungarian or Romanian.
In advertising, Ukrainian letters would be larger if another language is used. Films would also have subtitles or voiceovers in Ukrainian and museums would also incorporate Ukrainian. Within five years Ukrainian-language quotas will increase to 90 percent for national television channels and 80 percent for regional ones. Different rules apply for the Crimean Tatar language and “other languages of indigenous peoples.”
Thirty months after the law went into effect, print media must publish at least one version of their publication in Ukrainian and at least 50 percent of print media offered at retailers must be in Ukrainian.
Administrative fines for non-compliance range from $128 to $447 based on the exchange rate at the time. A national committee was to be established to monitor compliance, approve language standards and review language knowledge for candidates seeking government work or citizenship.
The new law fills a legal gap that was left after a controversial language law that was passed under ex-President Viktor Yanukovych in 2012. He used the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, designed to protect lesser used languages in a country, and allowed Russian to replace Ukrainian as an official regional language where at least 10 percent of an ethnic minority resides.
Russia has used language as a pretext for its annexation of Crimea in 2014, by claiming that it was “protecting” Russian speakers. Ukraine’s history shows how language has been manipulated as a tool of suppression, including Polonization under Polish rule, and Russification during tsarist times and the period under Soviet domination.
Source: “New law protects Ukrainian language in society,” by Mark Raczkiewycz, The Ukrainian Weekly, May 5, 2019.