The Ukrainian language lies at the core of the country’s constitutional order, guaranteeing the nation’s identity and being an integral attribute of the state, which preserves its historical heritage from the ancient Kyiv era. It is the language of the titular nation of Ukraine and, in accordance with generally accepted world practice and the Basic Law, serves as the only state language in the country.
That’s according to Taras Kremin, Ukraine’s Language Ombudsman, who penned an op-ed for lb.ua.
According to him, Russia has never consented to h this – constantly, permanently, for many centuries opposing the idea. And today the Russians are agitated, again. Kremlin propagandists have already “grinded down their teeth” on constant fabrications. Recently, obviously being in a manic state, they have applied sophisticated and sensitive forms of misinformation, systematically trying to circulate propaganda concepts. Illogical attempts to draw parallel lines between cold and green, just to make people believe them is part of traditional practices preached by information puppeteers, who, above all, seek to produce emotion-driving stories, backed by some “authoritative figure,” “life story,” “statistics,” “terrible consequences,” or non-existent “original sources.” These are the classic tools of information manipulators, whose purpose is to invent a parallel reality as a structural element of “hybrid war.” The ever-so-loud voice “language hysteria” proves once again that the Ukrainian language reaffirming itself in Ukraine is perhaps the worst nightmare for the Russian authorities.
We well remember that the Russian invasion of Crimea, the occupation of parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and the attempt to seize other southern and eastern regions of Ukraine went on under the slogan of “protecting the rights of the Russian-speaking population.” The language issue has become one of the terrible manipulations exploited by Russian propaganda. As chairman of the Mykolaiv Regional Council in 2014, I remember other boogeyman stories about “Banderites,” “baby blood,” “severed tongues,” and so on. But is this the only thing that they use to scare people? Russian propagandists brand the State Language Ombudsman “Sprechenführer,” and his Secretariat staff – “language militia”, the applicants filing complaints about language law violations – “snitches,” and the language law, upheld by the Constitutional Court – “discrimination against Russian-speakers in Ukraine.” As you can see, Goebbels’ tools are in action.
So today, Moscow is outraged by the establishment of the Ukrainian language as a state language in Ukraine. Recently, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation complained that in Ukraine the state language is replacing Russian in various fields, including education. And then they went on to circulate yet another fake story.
“Violations of rights of millions of Russian speakers in Ukraine have reached horrific proportions. The country’s authorities are passing discriminatory laws on language, education, and so-called indigenous peoples, displacing the Russian language from all spheres of life,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said on its website.
What drove them to produce this deceptive noise? The thing is that on January 20, the U.S. State Department released a report on Russian disinformation about Ukraine. It refers to several Russian military and intelligence agencies that have been waging a constant information war against Ukraine.
“These activities include the spread of disinformation and propaganda attempting to paint Ukraine and Ukrainian government officials as the aggressor in the Russia-Ukraine relationship. Such measures are intended to influence Western countries into believing Ukraine’s behavior could provoke a global conflict and convince Russian citizens of the need for Russian military action in Ukraine,” the U.S. Department of State wrote.
At the same time, our American partners drew attention to the fact that in the Russian-occupied Crimea and in the CADLR, Ukrainians are facing “suppression of their culture and national identity,” living in an environment of “severe repression and fear.” At the same time, the United States notes that there is no reliable evidence that any ethnic Russians or Russian speakers are under threat from the Ukrainian authorities.
In response, official Moscow lied again, claiming that the human rights situation in Crimea, including the situation of national minorities, “not only improved but became qualitatively different.” In addition, the Russian Foreign Ministry was once again outraged by the support for the Ukrainian language in Ukraine and saw this as violations and harassment of Russian-speaking citizens at a “terrifying scale.”
Russia’s foreign minister has gone further, claiming that discrimination against the Russian language has reached a high scale even beyond Ukraine. The Baltic states, Russia says, have “declared an open war against the Russian language and Russian-language education” in violation of numerous international conventions, so now the Russian language is dying out in the post-Soviet space.
In addition, the neighboring aggressor power is trying to school Ukrainian athletes as to the language they are to speak at the international events. Hysterical reports are pouring in about the fact that Ukrainian Olympians in Beijing will speak and give interviews in Ukrainian. Kremlin propaganda claims that Ukrainian athletes are banned from taking photos with Russians.
Almost all Russian mass media joined the discussion of recommendations passed by the Ministry of Youth and Sports to Ukrainian athletes. It has been claimed that Ukraine is already violating the Olympic Charter!
I’d like to remind everyone who is still tormented by Ukrainian-language contradictions: on July 16, 2019, Law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language” came into force in Ukraine, while most of its norms have long been in place.
In January 2021, the entire service sector switched to Ukrainian in communication with customers and visitors, and in July, articles on the state language in the field of culture and tourism were also enforced. Now, starting January 16, 2022, national newspapers and magazines that had been published in non-state languages have to be published in Ukrainian. I would also like to note that, according to the latest polls, the vast majority of Ukrainians consider Ukrainian to be their native language and support the language law.
We are well aware that the further mass transition to the main language – the state language, Ukrainian – is our historical choice, the requirement of our legislation, and the continuous process of establishing national identity in order to build a better future. And no matter how it agitates the Kremlin once there’s even more Ukrainian out there, no matter how propagandistic lies are spread, to which strong national immunity has already developed, remember the words of the famous Ivan Ohienko (Metropolitan Hilarion): “A language is a form of our life, cultural and national. As long as the language lives on, so do the people as a nation.”
