Kiev intensifying ‘Ukrainization’ campaign – ombudsman

Kiev has embarked on a full-scale “Ukrainization” campaign as new legislation allows the government to ban the Russian language and culture more comprehensively throughout the country, a senior official has said.

In an interview with Ukrainskaya Pravda on Thursday, Taras Kremen, who serves as Ukraine’s commissioner for the protection of the state language, hailed what he called the government’s strides in its long-running campaign to eradicate the Russian language from all public spheres of life. The official recalled that Kiev’s legislation has gradually made Ukrainian compulsory in education and culture.

“Now, I see nothing but fervent Ukrainization, which has replaced a gentle one,” he stressed, adding that the term implies “strict control over compliance with the language law in all spheres of public life on the territory of Ukraine.” 

Kremen noted that Kiev could now put pressure on individual media and service sectors in the language sphere due to legal changes.

While praising the advances of Ukrainization, Kremen insisted that the country has no “sprechen Fuhrers” (language inspectors), but instead has responsible citizens “who fundamentally refuse to communicate in a non-state language.” 

At the same time, the language czar criticized what he called “fairly common” perceptions that Ukrainians are speaking Russian again, stressing that “a record number of citizens have switched to the Ukrainian language in certain areas.” He insisted that the military’s tendency to speak Russian should not be an example for other citizens.  

“The order to attack is given in one language. And the order… of de-occupation… will also be given in the Ukrainian language. Therefore, I have no doubt that Ukrainian is the language of our victory, the language of our offensive,” he said.

The language dispute has been one of the most divisive issues in Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet Union, fueling the internal conflict that culminated in the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014. The government has embarked on a crusade to chip away at the rights of the Russian-speaking population and sever cultural ties with its neighbor, with efforts intensifying after the outbreak of hostilities with Moscow in February 2022.

While Russian continues to hold a prominent role in Ukrainian society, last year Kremen protested against the notion that some Ukrainians could be called “Russophones,” claiming that the term is “a marker introduced by Russian ideology.”

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