On February 21, a press conference on the topic: "Native Language - Mother of Unity", dedicated to International Mother Language Day, was held at the news agency "Ukrinform". 

The event was attended by State Language Protection Commissioner Taras Kremin, Head of the Service of Ukraine on Ethnic Policy and Freedom of Conscience Victor Yelenskyi, Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Refat Chubarov, representatives of public organizations of national communities residing in Ukraine.

The participants of the event discussed the issues of state policy in the area of protection, development, and popularization of the state language, the state of the languages of indigenous peoples and national minorities of Ukraine during the war.  

Speaking about the linguocide of the Ukrainian language in the temporarily occupied territories by russia, Taras Kremin reminded that 2 years ago, together with representatives of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, it was presented the review on the status of the state language and Crimean Tatar language in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, which showed russia's implementation in the occupied territories of a purposeful policy of extermination of the state and Crimean Tatar languages from all spheres of public life.

He noted that the use of language as an instrument of war on the part of the aggressor country took even larger forms after the beginning of russia's full-scale invasion of the territory of Ukraine. 

“We constantly emphasize the facts of linguocide in the temporarily occupied territories as matters of attention of international and domestic human rights institutions and law enforcement agencies. The world knows about the burning of books by russian criminals, the displacement of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages from the educational process, the removal, humiliation, and murder of teachers, etc. These are elements of the genocide of the Ukrainian people”, he said.

Taras Kremin also emphasized the importance of the development of the Ukrainian language abroad. We do our best to care about the development of the Ukrainian language in the world. After all, communicating in it is not only fashionable but also very important. Because Ukraine will become, and in fact, it is already the epicenter of European recovery. Not only institutional and infrastructural. It goes about the development of a democratic, united, and strong future of Europe with the powerful Armed Forces of Ukraine. Therefore, I believe and hope that Ukrainian will become popular in the leading universities of the modern world," he said.  

The Commissioner stressed that it is necessary to do everything "we are to be heard everywhere, and it should be the voice of a free, democratic, tolerant society".