The right to use a minority language : Russian language in Ukraine

Abstract

The desire for democratic values proclaimed in modern Ukraine, in our opinion, is at odds with Ukraine's language policy towards the Russian language. The Russian language has no state, official or regional status in the country, despite the fact that it is a language of interethnic communication and serves more than 60 per cent of communication in the country, and one third of the Ukrainian population is native speakers. In my opinion, this violates the language rights of the Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine and puts them in a difficult situation compared to Ukrainian-speaking citizens. In fact, it strains inter-ethnic relations within the country, creates a cultural divide in society and divides Ukrainian citizens into first- and second-class people. I believe that the unstable economic and political situation is also due to errors in language policy. The state of extreme public intolerance between West and East, which has degenerated into open armed conflict, was also caused by the repeal of the Kivalov- Kolesnichenko language law, which gave Russian the status of a regional language in the Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine. I came to this conclusion following an analysis of the Council of Europe instruments, Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities and the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which showed that Ukraine has not always respected the language rights of the Russian language minority.