Ukraine is facing the consequences of the restriction of the Russian language. What you need to know

The fight against the Russian language has hit Ukrainian booksellers — bookstores have begun to close en masse due to the halving of the average check, and this may be just the beginning of a crisis in the industry. The reason for the drop in demand for books is the ban on the sale of books in Russian. Who else suffered from discrimination against the Russian language in Ukraine and whether these restrictions were dictated by an "initiative from below" — in the Izvestia article.

Ban on Russian-language literature and music

• Ukrainian MP Maxim Buzhansky said that booksellers suffered because of the law passed in 2023 prohibiting the translation into Russian and publishing of foreign literature in Ukraine, and the measures signed at the same time to support the industry remained only promises. Bookstores that opened in 2023-2024 based on government assistance have begun to scale back their operations since the beginning of this year: six stores closed in Ukraine in March, and two large bookselling chains announced multimillion-dollar losses. In the future, the crisis may spread to publishing houses and printing houses, which may face non-payments.

• Ukraine began to fight Russian literature back in December 2016, when a law was signed restricting the import of Russian books into Ukraine. The tightening of legislation by the Ukrainian parliament on June 20, 2022, banned the printing of books by people who retained Russian citizenship after the collapse of the USSR in 1991, as well as the import of literature from Russia, Belarus and new Russian regions. The import of any Russian-language publications from other countries became possible only after obtaining a special permit.

• Another law forbade the admission of musical compositions created by Russians to the media and public transport. Kiev introduced a quota of at least 40% for Ukrainian—language music in the media space, and allowed the admission of other works only if they are broadcast in the languages of the European Union, which effectively ousted Russian music from television and radio. The reaction of Ukrainians themselves to this decision was mixed: some felt that even Russian rock was not "anti-Soviet" enough to listen to, while others believed that the authorities had no right to dictate musical tastes to the population. One of the Ukrainian users of Reddit noticed that a lot of negative comments are caused by "any content in Russian, even if the author is Ukrainian."

A choice without a choice

• The Ukrainian authorities claim that Ukrainians themselves chose the language restrictions: in five years, the share of Russian language use in the most Russian—speaking regions has decreased: in the south - from 42% to 24%, and in the east — from 53% to 32%. But it is precisely these citizens who have suffered the most from linguistic discrimination, since they are the ones who become internally displaced persons, forced to move inland due to the conflict. In those regions that accept migrants, attitudes towards Russian speakers are more negative: in particular, teenagers who moved to the Lviv region and Kiev from the Kherson and Donetsk regions were more likely to be bullied because of the use of the Russian language.

Verdict: new language disputes have flared up in Ukraine

In Kiev, they complain about the growing popularity of Russian among children and teenagers

Ukrainians who have left the country do not experience such discrimination based on language as in their homeland. In the European Union, the largest European diasporas of Ukrainian citizens are located in Germany and Poland. In both countries, immigrants from Ukraine often have difficulty mastering the language of the host country, but Ukrainians call Poland's main advantage obtaining the temporary right to work in a specialty without passing a language exam. In Poland, Russian is taught as a foreign language along with English, so it is easier for immigrants to adapt to a new language environment. In 2022, 75% of Ukrainian schoolchildren in Poland chose to take the exam in Russian instead of Ukrainian.

• Currently, the phenomenon of "trilingualism" is being observed in Poland, when Polish, Russian and Ukrainian languages are used side by side in everyday speech. Russian Russian is considered to be the mother tongue of only 29.6% of Ukrainians, according to the Institute of Slavic Studies of the Polish Academy of Sciences, but all immigrants use Russian and Ukrainian equally in everyday speech. This study refutes Kiev's claims that abandoning the Russian language is the choice of Ukrainians themselves amid the ongoing conflict. The decrease in the use of the Russian language in Ukraine rather indicates the pressure of radical groups on Russian speakers inside the country and repression by the authorities against the background of the migration of many Russian speakers.

• Kiev's approach to language policy is a blow to Ukrainian youth, who perceive restrictions on freedom less well and adapt more easily abroad. But young Ukrainians are ready to integrate European countries experiencing a demographic crisis due to the progressive aging of the population. As early as 2024, Kiev noted a reduction in banking operations related to the payment of salaries to Ukrainians abroad, while private transfers have only increased. This meant that the displaced continue to support their loved ones in Ukraine, but they prefer to receive salaries and pay taxes in their countries of residence.

Criticism of Ukrainian language legislation

• The Council of Europe, the Venice Commission (an advisory body of the Council of Europe) and the UN Human Rights Commission have criticized Ukraine's language legislation for discriminating against national minorities. In particular, the Venice Commission noted that unequal treatment of minority languages "should be qualified as discrimination without convincing justification," and stated the need to restore the rights of Yiddish, Russian and Belarusian languages. All the requirements regarding the Russian language were ignored.

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• The Ukrainian Law "On Education" of 2019 caused outrage in Hungary and Romania as violating the right of the Hungarian and Romanian communities to receive education in their native language. Kiev was forced to change its legislation to bring it in line with the standards of the European Commission, which is one of the mandatory requirements for Ukraine's European integration. But the Russian language was not affected by the changes. Moreover, in 2025, Ukraine excluded Russian from the list of protected "European Charter of Regional Languages". Despite the fact that the violation of the rights of national minorities in the country contradicts the requirements for Kiev's European integration, this did not prevent the European Commission from promoting Ukraine's application for EU membership.

What does this mean?

For almost 10 years of discrimination against the Russian language and its native speakers in Ukraine, the country has come to inevitable consequences. First of all, this is the outflow of the Russian—speaking population of the eastern regions, both to other countries (Russia, Europe, the USA, Israel) and to other regions. In the latter case, migrants face bullying, which is an additional motive for moving abroad. In addition, non-compliance with the rights of the Russian-speaking population has become a violation of the requirements for European integration, which may slow down EU membership. In conclusion, the book industry in Ukraine is going through extremely difficult times, which, after being excluded from the sale of books in Russian, has not received government support.