Yesterday at 18:58
A vegan café in central Kyiv always plays Ukrainian music. All clients are also greeted in Ukrainian. Four years ago, the owner of the café purposefully stopped communicating in Russian.
Pavlo, the owner, explained that his transition to the Ukrainian language is a return to the language of his ancient Cossack heritage. He supports legislative strengthening of the Urkainian language’s status.
Ousted Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych’s party of Regions, and Ukraine’s Communist Party adopted a law on state language policy on July 3rd, 2012, amid fistfights. Without being given an official status, Russian was de-facto equated in its rights to the Ukrainian language on most of the nation’s territory.
According to Pavlo Hrytsenko, director of the Ukrainian Language Institute, the language law of 2012 was against the interests of the state. At a hearing of the Constitutional Court in December 2016, he provided arguments for the document’s abolishment. “There are no threats to the Russian language in Ukraine, because Russian is spoken in Russia. There is a powerful force supporting this language. Even if we took all the Russians away from Ukraine, it wouldn’t threaten the Russian language. But if we allow the destruction of the Ukrainian language to continue, it will be impossible to revive it.”
This year, on February 28th, the Constitutional Court recognized the language law of 2012 to be anti-constitutional and abolished it due to serious violations of the voting process. Public activists say that the only document regulating language usage in Ukraine is the 10th article of the Constitution. They demand a new law be adopted. “A legal vacuum has appeared, and now MPs have to fill it. The new law must give a comprehensive answer to the question about the protection and usage of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life.”
A specialized parliamentary committee has reviewed 4 bills on state language. One of them has already been approved. The bill provides for the creation of a commission on language standards. A Commissioner for protection of the Ukrainian language will also be appointed.
The bill will raise the Ukrainian Language’s status to that of a State Symbol. According to MPS, the language should be trearted just like the flag, the coat of arms, and the anthem.
The Ukrainian government has also called on the parliament to accelerate the adoption of the new language law. According to the Ministry of Culture, it will help consolidate the national identity of Ukrainians.
