Purposeful destruction of the Ukrainian language (linguocide), as a defining feature of the Ukrainian nation, by Russia for many centuries is an indisputable historical fact.

Linguocide is a constituent part of the policy of genocide against Ukrainians  in the temporarily occupied territories. Ukrainian language, as an important factor of national identity and state formation, is one of Russia's main goals in   the war against Ukraine.

Acts of linguocide of the Ukrainian language are always accompanied by threats, intimidation, use of physical force, psychological pressure, restraint of liberty, abduction, torture, murder and other crimes against Ukrainians. Illegal acts and documents containing evidence of linguocide may be issued and distributed on behalf of the occupation administrations.

We hope all occupiers’ crimes, including those ones related to linguocide, will  be duly recorded, investigated and brought to justice. The perpetrators must be identified and punished.

For that purpose, the State Language Protection Commissioner of Ukraine Taras Kremin appealed to the Ukrainians and representatives of international community to report about the acts of linguocide against the Ukrainian language (any actions of the occupiers or their collaborators aimed at discrimination or persecution of Ukrainians on the basis of language, forcible expulsion of the Ukrainian language from public space and public use, replacing it with Russian).

☎ phone: +380635561279;

email: stoplinguacide@gmail.com

Detailed documentation of acts of linguocide of the Ukrainian language will be important for the arrangement of legal prosecution of criminals and bringing them to justice.

We bring to your attention the following statements of the State Language Protection Commissioner and other facts regarding the acts of genocide of the Ukrainian language.

1.03.23

Schoolchildren in the occupied Melitopol in the Zaporizhzhya region mostly do not study online in Ukrainian schools as it’s dangerous. The Mayor of Melitopol Ivan Fedorov states that students and their parents choose other forms of education. After all, during the searches, the occupants found in parents’ gadgets or computers the links to access to the training system according to the Ukrainian program. There were cases when such parents were taken to the police stations or even deported. Therefore, children in the occupation mainly study externally and then pass exams in specific subjects.

8.03.23

Destruction of education in the Ukrainian language in the occupied Crimea. The removal of the Ukrainian language from education in the occupied Crimea is a conscious attempt to erase Ukrainian identity from the region. Forcing Crimean schools to teach exclusively in russian, the russian occupation administration deprives Ukrainian children of the opportunity to learn and use their native language, which is an integral part of their cultural identity.

13.03.23

 

In Ukraine, a video about the need to combat the cultural expansion of the russian federation was presented. Within the framework of the large-scale initiative "Plusui Ukrainian", the authors published a new thematic video on their resources about how russia has cultivated its culture for years, russification of Ukrainian education, music, cinema, and literature. "As of 2022 in Ukraine, among 4 million schoolchildred there’re about 450 schoolchildren who studied russian. Moreover, there’re as many as 424 educational institutions in which the teaching was carried out completely in russian… At the same time in russia there’s not a single school in which the Ukrainian language was studied, although millions of our citizens lived there," the video says.

13.03.23 

 

In the temporarily occupied territories of the Zaporizhzhya region, the occupation authorities plan to cancel the mandatory learning of the Ukrainian language starting from the new academic year. This was reported by the so-called "minister" of education and science of the temporarily occupied Zaporizhzhya

Photo: tashatuvango/Depositphotos

region Elena Shapurova, russian editions TASS and "Kommersant" write. “This school year, the Ukrainian language is mandatory for all, and children learn it for three hours a week. Since September 1, 2022, according to the program, it was the native language, but after the referendum, according to the laws of the Russian Federation, everyone can choose which language they will learn as their native language,” Shapurova said.

 

13.03.23

The Security Service of Ukraine has exposed 14 more teachers-collaborators who help the enemy to russify Ukrainian schools in Mariupol and Genichesk. This was reported in the SSU telegram channel. The Security Service systematically exposes collaborators who help the occupants to introduce russian "education standards" in temporarily occupied territories of Southern and Eastern Ukraine. As a result of investigative and operational actions, 14 teachers were informed of the suspicion of cooperation with the enemy. It is also noted that the leaders of the "education departments", created by russian invaders, are among them, as well as the deans

of faculties and directors of captured Ukrainian schools and "high schools".

 

14.03.23

 

The russians erased Ukraine from the educational program in the occupation, - an interview with the former Crimean teacher. In Crimea, there are now about 334 thousand children from 0 to 15 years old, 15 to 18 years old – about 53 thousand, and there’re 54 thousand students. So, about half a million children are under the influence of a very long-term propaganda of the russian federation… In Crimea, one out of 100 children has access to the Ukrainian language. And in grades 10-11, they have no access to the Ukrainian language at all.

14.03.23

“The policy of russification of the Ukrainian education system in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine is part of the tactics aimed at destroying our statehood and eradicating national identity”, Taras Kremin, State Language Protection Commissioner commented on the information on the abolition in the temporarily occupied part of the Zaporizhzhya region of compulsory study of the Ukrainian language. “The occupants continue to destroy Ukrainian education and culture, to kidnap teachers and children, to burn kindergartens and schools. The new facts of the linguocide, which the Secretariat of the Commissioner has been collecting for the third year in a row, are added to the numerous others”.

 

20.03.23

Ukrainian language during the war: key trends in development. A full-scale russian invasion intensified the process of Ukrainization. The Ukrainian language gradually begins to dominate in those regions (South and East of Ukraine) and areas (informal communication, professional employment, virtual space), where it has not occupied leading positions for a long time.

27.03.23

 

FAKE: Ukrainians continue to "invent" the Ukrainian language. The russian telegram channels continue to promote the kremlin narrative that the Ukrainian language is "fictional". This time a screenshot of the website "Slovotvir" was used as evidence, where Ukrainians allegedly "invent" words. This is fake.

10.04.23

 

Which educational institutions were destroyed by russia for a year in Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia? The analysis. Unable to gain any victory on the battlefield, the occupiers resort to war crimes against the civilian population. According to the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, as of January 20, 2023, a total of 3051 educational institutions were damaged, of which 420 were completely destroyed. Almost half of them are schools: 1259 damaged and 223 completely destroyed.

Destroyed school in the village of Prosyan, Sinelnikov district, Dnipropetrovsk region.

Photo from webpage “Dnepr Operatyvnyi”

 

17.04.23

Educational de-occupation: what are schools of Crimea taught and how to integrate Crimean children into the Ukrainian space after the liberation of the peninsula? In schools of Crimea, as well as on the mainland of Ukraine, children weave camouflage nets, collect humanitarian aid to the front, and prepare letters and drawings for the military. But they do that in support of the russian army and the patterns of russian propaganda. After the occupation of the peninsula in 2014, there’re no Ukrainian-language schools in Crimea, students do not learn Ukrainian history, language, and literature at schools. Instead, they constantly hear russian narratives about Nazi Ukraine, russian Crimea, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and LDNR.

 

17.04.23

 

rashists prepared a "textbook on the Ukrainian language" for the occupied territories. The russian ministry of education has developed a textbook on the Ukrainian language for younger schoolchildren. First Deputy Minister

Photo by Anna Chernenko: Methodical manuals that russians brought to Kupiansk, Kharkiv region 
(occupied till September 2022)

 

of Education of russia Alexander Bugaev: the main language in schools of the occupied regions is russian. However, schoolchildren of the "LDNR" as well as of the occupied parts of Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions will be able to learn Ukrainian as an elective one.

20.04.23

 

NYT about switching to the Ukrainian language: the stars of Ukrainian social networks are rethinking their influence. ”Language has also been at issue in the war itself. When Moscow seized Ukrainian territory, it pressed teachers to use Russian as the main language in classes. Some of those who acceded were accused of collaboration by the Ukrainian authorities, who retook much of the territory in recent months. President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia cited the need to protect Russian speakers as part of his spurious justification for the war”.

24.04.23

The Guardian: Russian-speaking Ukrainians want to shed ‘language of the oppressor’. Kharkiv, about 18 miles (30km) from Ukraine’s eastern border, has long been a majority Russian-speaking city. Under the tsars, Russian was the language of officialdom and education. Publishing literature in Ukrainian was outlawed from the mid-19th century.