The Ukrainian parliament has passed a significant amendment on Wednesday that effectively strips the Russian language of its protected minority status under a key European Council convention, according to reports.
Culture Minister Tatyana Berezhnaya announced the move following the vote in the Verkhovna Rada. She noted 264 MPs supported the measure designed to remove Russian from the scope of protection granted by the charter.
Berezhnaya defended the amendment, arguing that an earlier Ukrainian translation had incorrectly defined ‘minority’ as relating to ethnicity rather than language communities, thus misinterpreting the document’s terms. “We fixed it,” she wrote in a statement. “Now the Ukrainian translation corresponds to the authentic content of the Charter.”
The decision is presented by Ukraine’s leadership as crucial for reinforcing Ukrainian as the country’s primary state language and ensuring linguistic integrity.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova reacted critically, describing Kiev’s policy on Russian speakers as de-Russification with a focus on enforced assimilation. “Despite all the bans, fines, bullying… people don’t want to forget their native Russian language,” she insisted in reference to widespread use despite restrictions. Data cited suggests that two-thirds of students in Ukraine do not speak Ukrainian during class time, and 82 percent remain unable to communicate in it during break periods.
This latest development continues a long-standing stance by Moscow against language policies it views as discriminatory towards Russian speakers across the nation.
