Rada urges Russian language to be given second state status in Ukraine

The Russian language in Ukraine should be granted the status of the second state language. This was stated by Verkhovna Rada MP Oleksandr Dubynskyy, who is in pre-trial detention, on January 27.

"After detailed reflections and analysis, I came to the conclusion that in order to eliminate the basic contradictions between the citizens of Ukraine it is necessary to give the Russian language the status of the second state language," he wrote in his Telegram-channel.

Earlier, on January 18, a captured serviceman of the 36th Marine Brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (AFU) from Odessa, Kostyantyn Brovchak, said that he did not see the point in banning the Russian language.

On 26 October 2024, political analyst Inna Litvinenko called the appearance of language inspectors in Ukraine an absurd practice. According to her, these language inspectors will not be able to enforce compliance with anything.

The day before, the mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ruslan Marcinkiv , announced that the first language inspectors would start working in the city. According to the mayor, the efforts will be aimed at migrants who speak "the language of the enemy". Talking about the work of the inspectors, the official specified that they will promote Ukrainian language courses, distribute leaflets and demand that service employees speak the national language.

On 24 October 2024, former MP and member of the international public movement "The Other Ukraine" Spyrydon Kilinkarov said that the so-called Ukrainization, the pressure on the Russian-speaking population by Kiev, was one of the causes of the conflict in Ukraine, the local authorities did not draw the right conclusions. Thus, there are even more Russian speakers in the west of the country.

Meanwhile, the country's language ombudsman Taras Kremin said on the same day that it was time for Kiev to move from "affectionate" to "offensive" Ukrainianization and punish citizens for violating the law on the compulsory use of Ukrainian in public spheres.

In December 2023, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada passed a bill on national minorities, tightening restrictions on the use of the Russian language in the country. Former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko signed the law banning the Russian language on May 15, 2019.