The other day, the law "On ensuring the functioning of Ukrainian as the official language", adopted by the current Verkhovna Rada convocation and signed by ex-President Petro Poroshenko, has officially come into force in Ukraine. According to the document, the Ukrainian language should become mandatory for central and local authorities, as well as educational institutions, hospitals and the service sector. Other languages may be only used in the course of private communication and religious ceremonies.
The controversial language law is obviously unwanted by anybody except the nationalist fringe. But the concern is that in modern Ukraine, the latter have become a serious force to occupy many chairs of state. So, Deputy Prime Minister of Ukraine Vyacheslav Kirilenko said one should not amend the language law. He warned Zelensky that if the new government fails to defend the Ukrainian language, there is a new Maidan coup awaiting the country. A language one this time. Apparently, the President of Ukraine did not dare to stand up for persons belonging to national minorities; other countries stepped into the breach.
Thus, May 18 witnessed the Russian mission to the United Nations addressing the Security Council Chairman with a request to convene a meeting due to the language law adoption by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Back then the UN Security Council refused to include the issue on the agenda and only discussed the issue on July 16, as it was once again brought up by Russia.
At the same time, OSCE High Commissioner on national minorities Lamberto Zannier noted that the state language law adopted in Ukraine is a source of concern for the international community, because it fails to guarantee the national minorities' protection of linguistic rights.
"The work to ensure the rights of minorities, including the issues of language and education, should be carried out in compliance with OSCE standards and international norms," Zannier said.
The OSCE representative pointed to the need of constant consultations on the problem between the Ukrainian authorities and those representing national minorities.
The EU is also going to study the law on the exclusive status of the Ukrainian language. This came from EU Foreign Service spokeswoman Maya Kosyanchich during a press conference in Brussels. She noted that the EU members have repeatedly voiced their concern regarding the document.
Those mostly worried about the language law adoption are Russia and Hungary. Back in February this year, head of the Hungarian Prime Minister's administration Gergely Gulyás said that the Ukrainian government adopted a "semi-fascist law violating the rights of national minorities." The Hungarian authorities promised that until Kiev abolishes the language law, Budapest will oppose Ukraine's entry into NATO.
Given a large proportion of Russian-speaking citizens in Ukraine, as well as representatives of other national minorities, the law has sparked natural concern with the Russian side. The country's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Vasily Nebenzya has emphasized that the law runs counter to the Ukrainian Constitution, which grants equal rights to citizens and national minorities.
"It does not fit into the fundamental European standards," the diplomat explained. According to the Russian Federation's permanent representative, the law should not be perceived as a domestic matter of Ukraine, not least because of violating the Minsk agreements.
"The language law is unlikely to be fully implemented, with all the radicals' will in the world," Deputy Director of the CIS Institute Vladimir Zharikhin said in an interview with the Inforos portal. "It will bring considerable inconvenience to most of the Ukrainians, for whom Russian is their native language.
A spectacular example is President Zelensky, who constantly switches to Russian from Ukrainian, which he does not know really well. Certainly, the adoption of such a law is an anti-democratic action contradicting the Constitution, where the Russian language is granted a special status. However, given the composition of the Ukrainian Constitutional Court, he will turn a blind eye to any violations of the country's fundamental law."
The expert reminded of Zelensky's many pledges before he took office, including amendments to the language law. But it is hardly worth waiting for these election promises to be fulfilled in the present context.
"Zelensky fears Ukrainian radicals, who are out of his control and may cause major problems. He also fears the influence of the quite aggressive and sizeable Ukrainian Diaspora in the United States and Canada, which actively supports this law and will place pressure upon him by means of the US government in case Zelensky begins to soften it, and he is well aware of this", Zharikhin concluded.
Meanwhile, the situation does not look really favorable, especially if we recall that it was the language issue that provoked the conflict in the south-east of Ukraine. Back then, the Kiev authorities deprived the Russian language of its regional status, which accelerated disunion and confrontation within the country. In fact, the language law marks the apex of the nationalist course Ukraine has been moving along for a total of five years already.
