Policy

Three languages to be deprived of protection in Ukraine: which ones

Russian and Belarusian will be excluded from the list of languages to be protected in Ukraine. This was stated by the government’s representative in the Verkhovna Rada, Taras Melnychuk, Komersant ukrainskyi reports.

Russian, Belarusian and Moldovan will be removed from the list. Greek will be replaced by New Greek, and Hebrew by Hebrew.

The Cabinet of Ministers also intends to replace the concept of “minority languages” with “minority languages.”

A minoritylanguage is a language that is both traditionally used in a certain part of the territory of a state by a group that is numerically smaller than the rest of the state’s population and different from the official language or languages of that state.

At the same time, the updated list of protected languages will include:

• bulgarian,
• gagauz, Gagauz,
• crimean Tatar, Greek
• new Greek,
• german, New Greek
• polish,
• romanian, Polish,
• slovak,
• hungarian
• czech;
• hebrew.

It should be noted that, according to the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience, the following ethnic communities exist in Ukraine (according to the 2001 census)

• russians (17.3%. Region of residence – Donetsk, Luhansk regions, Crimea);
• belarusians (0.6%. Region of residence – (Donetsk, Dnipropetrovska, Luhanska oblasts, AR of Crimea);
• moldovans (0.5%. Region of residence: Chernivtsi, Odesa, Mykolaiv regions, Kirovohrad region: Hruzke village of Kirovohrad district, Dobryanka village of Vilshany district, villages of Kanizh, Martonosha, Pancheve of Novomyrhorod district, Shamraievo village of Blahovishchenskyi district);
• crimean Tatars (0.5%. Region of residence – Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Kherson region);
• bulgarians (0.4%. Region of residence – Odesa oblast, Kirovohrad oblast: Vilshanka urban-type settlement, villages of Dobre, Stankuvate in Vilshanka district);
• hungarians (0.3%. Region of residence – Berehove, Uzhhorod, Mukachevo, Khust);
• romanians (0.3%. Region of residence – 3 districts of Chernivtsi region and 2 districts of Zakarpattia region);
• poles (0.3%. Region of residence – Zhytomyr, Khmelnytsky, Lviv regions);
• jews (0.2%. Region of residence: Kyiv, Odesa, Dnipro);
• armenians (0.2%. Region of residence – Donetsk, Kharkiv, Dnipro regions);
• greeks (0.2%. Region of residence – Azov Sea region of Donetsk oblast: Sartana village, Yalta, Mangush village, Maloyanisol village);
• tatars (0.2%. Region of residence – mainly in Eastern Ukraine, Donetsk, Luhansk and Kharkiv regions);
• roma (0.1%. The region of residence is Zakarpattia, Donetsk, Dnipropetrovs’k regions).
• azerbaijanis (0.1%);
• georgians (0.1%);
• germans (0.1%).

In addition, Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine states that the state language in Ukraine is Ukrainian, but “the free development, use and protection of Russian and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine are guaranteed in Ukraine”.