Ombudsman: All who consider themselves homo sapiens switched to state language

Olena Ivanovska. Photo: YouTube channel "Tse nikhto ne bude dyvytys"

The Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, Olena Ivanovska, said that those Ukrainians who consider themselves homo sapiens have switched to the Ukrainian language. She said this in an interview with blogger Emma Antoniuk on the YouTube channel “Tse nikhto ne bude dyvytys”.

“At this moment, everyone who considers themselves homo sapiens – everyone who understands cause-and-effect relationships and that language is not only a marker of our identity, but also a mental construct and, accordingly, a determinant of our behavioral strategy – has made their choice in favor of the state language,” Ivanovska said.

According to her, after the full-scale invasion in 2022, many Ukrainians felt a desire to switch to Ukrainian. However, that impulse has already run its course.

“In 2022 it flared up, and we really each felt our responsibility for safety, and the Russian word that we heard triggered in us not just rejection, but a sense of real danger. And what did that push us toward? Toward vigilance. It made those people for whom Russian was their native language switch to Ukrainian,” Ivanovska said.

The interview cited research data on the language situation in Kyiv schools: 66% of the capital’s students speak Russian during lessons and 82% – during breaks. Fewer than 20% of students use only Ukrainian. Nearly a quarter of teachers in Kyiv speak Russian during lessons, and 40% – during breaks. For comparison, across Ukraine as a whole, 14% of teachers speak Russian during lessons and 21% – during breaks.

Ivanovska said that fines for violating language legislation range from 3,400 to 11,000 hryvnias, and that a first violation may be limited to a warning. According to the official, vigilant citizens often contact her office with denunciations. “It’s not Russian-speaking people who write complaints to our institution, but only those Ukrainians who want to create this Ukrainian-speaking space around themselves – they reach out, and they show that they care,” she said.

Earlier, the UOJ wrote that, in Ivanovska’s view, Ukraine is fighting “for our faith.”

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