In Ukraine, the rights of national minorities have been significantly expanded. The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament, passed the relevant bill No. 10288-1 on December 8. 317 Members of the Parliament voted in favour.
This bill has been absolutely crucial for Ukraine’s EU aspirations; in fact, it was part of a package legally required to pave the way for Ukraine to join the European Union. In particular, negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership are scheduled to begin from 14 to 15 December. Before this, Ukraine was asked to pass several legislations, including the one on the rights of national minorities, the bill increasing the number of staff in the National Anti-Corruption Bureau, granting additional powers to the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption, and a law regarding lobbying. The parliament passed these laws last week.
At first glance, the news seems optimistic. However, in reality, we were just one step away from another wave of covert, large-scale Russification. Risks still exist.
What was the danger?
The national minorities law was already adopted in December 2022. After an initial evaluation, the Venice Commission advised that it needed further clarification. In September of this year, Ukraine’s Parliament made some relevant amendments. A month later, in October, the Venice Commission indicated that Ukraine had not implemented all of its earlier recommendations. Finally, on November 24, Ukraine’s Cabinet submitted a new bill (No. 10288) to the parliament, proposing to include ethnic Russians among Ukraine’s national minorities.
For the Ukrainian language, the risks of such a decision are evident: within five years after the end of the war (the transitional period mentioned in bill No. 10288), the presence of the Russian language in all spheres of life in Ukraine would significantly increase.
For example, currently, Ukrainian, the state language, quotas on television are at 90%. If passed, the proposed legislation would slash them to 30%. Moreover, the law would make it perfectly legal to hold any public events, such as educational seminars, conferences, summits, in Russian.
This would also apply to artistic and entertainment events. Posters and announcements would be duplicated in Russian, and the range of books in Russian would increase.
“Separate provisions of this bill (the 10288—ed.) will significantly damage the position of the Ukrainian language in certain areas of public life in Ukraine”, says Taras Kremin, the representative of the State Language Protection Commission. “For publishers, some of the previous requirements, such as a mandatory share of books published in the official state language, would be removed. The use of the state language on television and radio will significantly decrease due to the preference for the languages of national minorities. In addition, based on Ukraine’s incredibly traumatic historical experience, the proposed five-year post-war postponement of such provisions for the Russian language is not an adequate measure to prevent a new wave of Russification”.
The MPs were rushed to vote on a controversial bill without a proper expert analysis or a public discussion. For example, before a vote, similar laws were often evaluated by the Potebnya Institute of Linguistics – this time, it wasn’t. For many, this gave the impression that the national minorities bill was a Trojan horse. According to Iryna Marynenko, a researcher in philology, it would have taken two or three weeks for experts to familiarise themselves with the text of the bill and analyse its pros and cons.
The lack of open discussion is highly alarming. It suggests that certain state authorities are attempting quietly to push through legal provisions contradicting Ukraine’s national interests.
“In many ways, this draft law echoed the infamous Kivalov-Kolesnichenko law” [a language bill passed by the Yanukovych government in February 2012, giving the Russian language a regional language status, prompting further Russification of Ukraine —ed.], she explains. “Even some representatives of the current ruling party, like Mykyta Poturayev, the head of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy, admitted in several interviews that the risks of continued Russification are still high. Without the changes and clarifications introduced to the draft, Ukraine would have turned into a country of national minorities only. In fact, Ukrainians themselves would have become a national minority in Ukraine.”
Advantages of the updates to the draft law
The controversial draft law sparked heated discussions in Ukrainian society, leading to a public campaign – many people posted online using the #євроінтеграція_без_русифікації (#eurointegration_without_russification) hashtag. Numerous social media users expressed their concerns about the document, emphasising blatant manipulations of the national minorities’ languages.
Taras Kremin submitted his conclusions and proposals to revise the bill to the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine’s parliament. According to Kremin, some provisions of this bill contradict the Constitutional Court of Ukraine rulings.
A number of both pro-government and opposition MPs were working on the bill 10288-1, an updated draft law on the rights of national minorities. “It’s a pity that this joint work started after the government’s project, developed without proper interaction with parliament and society, was hastily registered and caused justifiable indignation”, said Volodymyr Viatrovych, one of the Ukrainian MPs who worked on the updated law. “Together with our colleagues, we managed to develop an alternative draft and reach a consensus on its wording. We removed all of the provisions that left the door open to potential Russification”.
Most importantly, the clause defining Russian as the language of national minorities in Ukraine was removed from the text. Therefore, the paragraphs regarding the rights of national minorities will not apply to Russians, neither in a year nor in five years after the end of the war, but indefinitely.
Furthermore, according to the new rules, only a settlement where the representatives of the national minorities constitute at least 10% of the overall population will be defined as a ‘national minorities settlement’.
“I can’t say that we completely covered all the loopholes for potential Russification. But we have significantly reduced the risks”, says Iryna Marynenko. “The law clearly says that only languages that are official languages of the European Union may be defined as the languages of national minorities. Russian is not an EU language in any country.”
The next question is, are there Russian national minorities in Ukraine? Scholars, activists, and politicians are unanimous in their answers. Russians are linguistically non-adapted Ukrainians. Legally, they are not considered a national minority in Ukraine. Especially during a major war, the language of the aggressor country cannot be privileged in Ukraine.
“If we compare the rights of the Ukrainian language in Romania and Romanian in Ukraine, we find that there are many Ukrainians in Romania, but they are scattered throughout the country. Creating a single school is irrational. No one will travel 200 kilometres to bring their children to study in Bucharest. As a result, it turns out that there isn’t even a need to create Ukrainian schools in Romania. At the same time, Romanian schools in Ukraine fully function because there are centralised communities of local Romanian communities. The same applies to the Russian language in Ukraine. Russians are scattered across Ukraine. Therefore, there is clearly no need for Russian schools in Ukraine”, explains Iryna Marynenko.
Who benefits the most from the new law?
First and foremost, Hungary would be the primary beneficiary of the new law. For several years, Viktor Orban’s government has been lamenting that the rights of ethnic Hungarians in Transcarpathia were limited.
Moreover, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Greece, and Moldova have all made claims regarding the rights of national minorities in Ukraine. After the recent adoption of the legislation, Romania expressed its full support for the commencement of negotiations on Ukraine’s EU membership.
At the same time, the Hungarian government reiterated its disapproval of how “the Hungarian minority is treated in Ukraine”. Hungary’s Russian-leaning government keeps blocking any decisions by the European Parliament in favour of Ukraine.
“Speaking about any oppression of national minorities is not entirely correct. At a practical level, Ukraine treats all national minorities with respect. Let’s remember that in Transcarpathia, many ethnic Hungarians have a low level of proficiency in Ukrainian. This, of course, satisfies Viktor Orban, who constantly claims that Ukraine restricts the rights of ethnic Hungarians. What Hungary is doing definitely plays into the hands of the Russian government”, says Iryna Marynenko.
However, while the risks of Russification seem to have been neutralised following the updates to the national minorities law, it is still quite concerning that the use of the Ukrainian language in Ukraine is narrowing. Local television channels and radio stations can reduce the mandatory share of the Ukrainian language in the air to 30% at their discretion. There is always a risk that while there will be no Russian advertising in Ukraine, there may be advertising in the EU languages; students at private universities will be able to take a larger portion of their courses in EU languages. At the same time, the share of courses taught in Ukrainian may increase at the discretion of educational institutions.
