Ukrainian ministry backs complete ban on Russian language in schools
The Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine has supported a bill that would outlaw speaking Russian in the country’s schools, even during recess periods, the head of the ministry Oksen Lisovoy said on Friday, according to local media reports.
The relevant bill was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada on October 1. The author of the initiative, MP Natalya Pipa, stated at the time that the mandatory use of the official Ukrainian language in classrooms is not sufficient to ensure its dominance. She also referred to complaints from parents who were unhappy that their children were being exposed to Russian in schools and kindergartens as most of their peers communicate with each other in that language.
The bill was supported “with some remarks,” Lisovoy reportedly said, adding that he believes any decisions that protect the Ukrainian language must provide for the possibility of equal development of the EU’s national community languages. However, “this in no way applies” to the Russian language, he said, calling it “the language of the aggressor country … used as a weapon, as a prerequisite for aggression.”
According to media reports, the bill specifies that communication in Russian should be also prohibited in private educational institutions.
A large proportion of Ukrainian citizens can speak or understand both Russian and Ukrainian, particularly in the east of the country. However, since the 2014 coup, the new authorities have abolished Russian as an official regional language and adopted policies aimed at its suppression. According to the government in Kiev, the language constitutes a threat to national unity and security.
Russia has repeatedly denounced these steps as discrimination.
A survey conducted by the State Service for the Quality of Education during the 2023/2024 school year showed that there had been a drop in the use of the Ukrainian language by schoolchildren, parents, and teachers.
Around the same time, Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Taras Kremin warned that many Ukrainian children did not know their official state language well enough because they were still using Russian in their daily lives.
In 2019, the national parliament passed a law requiring Ukrainian to be used exclusively in nearly all aspects of public life, including education, entertainment, politics, business and the service industry.
Moscow has repeatedly denounced Kiev’s crackdown on Russian culture and language, insisting that “forced Ukrainization” violates international law and infringes upon the rights of native Russian speakers, who make up around a quarter of the population.
Kiev has sharply intensified its de-Russification efforts since the escalation of the conflict with Moscow in February 2022. Ukrainian lawmakers have since imposed blanket bans on Russian-language works of art, on concerts and performances, and on movies, books and songs. The study of Russian in schools and universities has also been outlawed.
