Ukraine and the languages of ethnic minorities

After becoming independent from the defunct Soviet Union in August 1991, the Ukrainian state for a long time maintained an ambivalent attitude with respect to its many ethnic minorities. On the one hand, at an individual level, the ethnic minority status is not an obstacle to social advancement. The country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky is a member of the Jewish community, the defence minister Rustem Umarov hails from the Tartar community, while the governor of the Mykolaiv region has distant Korean roots. On the other hand, with respect to the collective rights of ethnic minorities, the political class in Kyiv has been relatively reticent and criticism on this subject has come both from at home and abroad. Experts say it wasn’t until Ukraine was awarded the status of EU candidate country that it began to adopt a more flexible position on this subject, given that respect for the rights of ethnic minorities is a fundamental value of the European Union.

The protection of persons belonging to national ethnic minorities is important for a democratic and European Ukrainian state, said Romania’s foreign minister Luminiţa Odobescu during joint statements with Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for European and Euro-Atlantic integration Olga Stefanishyna. Earlier, Ukraine’s Parliament adopted legislation amending a number of laws on the rights of national minorities. „The bill proposed by the authorities in Kyiv to amend the relevant legislation is a positive step forward and a much-welcome move”, said minister Odobescu. She added that the Romanian side would continue to have a transparent and constructive approach to this issue. Olga Stefanishyna said the legislation relating to ethnic minorities was so drafted as to foster inclusive dialogue with the latter. „We are grateful to the Romanian minority who became involved in the entire process and to our counterparts from the Romanian government who shared with us their legislation and best practice. […] In Ukraine we have thousands of children who benefit from education in the Romanian language. Now their number will be bigger. Ukraine has moved to recognise Romanian as the official language of the Republic of Moldova”, said the Ukrainian official, referring to Kyiv’s decision to finally invalidate the Soviet misconception about the existence of a Moldovan language different from the Romanian language.

Neighbouring Ukraine is home to over 400,000 ethnic Romanians, most of whom live in northern Bukovina, the north and south of Bessarabia and the Hertsa region, former Romanian territories which the Soviet Union annexed in 1940 and which Ukraine inherited as the legal successor of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. When Russia invaded Ukraine last year, many ethnic Romanians went to fight under the Ukrainian flag, and a large number of them have lost their lives on the battlefield.

(Bogdan Matei, Radio Romania International)