Russian language in Ukraine

Members of a Russophone association supporting the 2006 decision of the Kharkiv City Council to make the Russian language official at local level.
Party of Regions 2012 parliamentary election campaign poster in Crimea stating "Russian: (upgrade it) from a regional language to the second official (state) language"

Russian is the most common first language in the Donbas and Crimea regions of Ukraine and the city of Kharkiv, and the predominant language in large cities in the eastern and southern portions of the country.[1] The usage and status of the language is the subject of political disputes. Ukrainian is the country's only state language since the adoption of the 1996 Constitution, which prohibits an official bilingual system at state level but also guarantees the free development, use and protection of Russian and other languages of national minorities.[2] In 2017 a new Law on Education was passed which restricted the use of Russian as a language of instruction.[2] Nevertheless, Russian remains a widely used language in Ukraine in pop culture and in informal and business communication.[1]

  1. ^ a b Bilaniuk, Laada; Svitlana Melnyk (2008). "A Tense and Shifting Balance: Bilingualism and Education in Ukraine". In Aneta Pavlenko (ed.). Multilingualism in Post-Soviet Countries. Multilingual Matters. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-84769-087-6. Archived from the original on May 8, 2016. Retrieved November 25, 2015.
  2. ^ a b "Ukrainians and their language. The Act on the State Language of Ukraine". OSW Centre for Eastern Studies. June 11, 2019. Retrieved April 21, 2022.