Ukraine's parliament strips Russian from 'protected minority language' list
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, passed on Dec. 3 an ammendment removing Russian from the list of languages protected under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.
"Today we have finally restored historical justice and turned the page on years of distortions that were used for political pressure and to legitimize Russification. We have demonstrated our maturity as a European state," Language Ombudsman Olena Ivanovska said on Dec. 3.
Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna also praised the ammendment, saying that it "allows us to genuinely protect the languages that need it while strengthening Ukrainian as the state language."
Moldovan was also removed from the list, as the Moldovan government formally recognized Romanian as the country’s state language in 2023, marking a break with a Soviet-era policy designed to artificially distinguish Moldovan as a "separate" language and undermine relations with Romania.
The list still includes 18 other languages, among them Belarusian, Bulgarian, Gagauz, Crimean Tatar, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Urum, Romani, Hungarian, Czech, and Hebrew.
A number of Ukrainian officials previously advocated for amending the law to address what they identified as a longstanding mistranslation of "minority languages," a mistake that stemmed from a Russian translation of the Charter's original English and French texts.
"The word 'minority' (English) or 'minoritaires' (French) does not mean 'national minorities'; rather, the term refers to a 'numerical minority' — that is, it concerns languages spoken by smaller groups of the population, not necessarily linked to any particular nationality," the Culture Ministry originally noted in 2024.
Moscow has claimed the "protection" of Ukraine's Russian speakers is one of the reasons it launched the full-scale war. However, the majority of Ukrainians speak or understand Russian because of a legacy of centuries-long Russian efforts to impose its language on the country.
While both segments of the population and government authorities are pushing to promote the use of Ukrainian in everyday life, a number of Ukrainians still speak Russian, even amid the ongoing full-scale war.
Ivanovska said in mid-October that stripping Russian from the list would "deprive Kremlin propaganda of a tool for manipulation."
