The language policy in Ukraine is based on the constitution of Ukraine, international treaties and domestic legislation. According to article 10 of the constitution, Ukrainian is the official language of Ukraine, and the state shall ensure the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life throughout the entire territory of the country. Some minority languages (such as Russian and Belarusian) have more limited protection and are subject to restrictions on some forms of public use.
The 2012 law On the Principles of State Language Policy granted regional language status to Russian and other minority languages. It allowed the use of minority languages in courts, schools and other government institutions in areas of Ukraine where the national minorities exceed 10% of the population. The 2012 law was supported by the governing Party of Regions and opposed by the opposition parties, who argued that the law undermined the role of the Ukrainian language, violated Article 10 of the Constitution, and was adopted with an irregular procedure. Immediately after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, on 23 February 2014, the Ukrainian Parliament voted to repeal the law. This decision was vetoed by the acting President Turchynov. In October 2014, the Constitutional Court started reviewing the constitutionality of the 2012 law and declared it unconstitutional on 28 February 2018.
In April 2019, the Ukrainian parliament adopted a new law, the law On supporting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language. The law made the use of Ukrainian compulsory (totally or within quotas) in more than 30 spheres of public life, including public administration, electoral process, education, science, culture, media, economic and social life, health and care institutions, and activities of political parties. The law did not regulate private communication. In consumer services, Ukrainian is the default language, although at the customer's request individual service may be provided in another language acceptable to both parties. Some exemptions were provided for the official languages of the European Union and for minority languages, with the exclusion of Russian, Belarusian and Yiddish.European Commission for Democracy through Law (Venice Commission), Ukraine - Opinion on the Law on Supporting the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language, adopted by the Venice Commission at its 121st Plenary Session (Venice, 6–7 December 2019), CDL-AD(2019)032. The Venice Commission and Human Rights Watch expressed concern about the 2019 law's failure to protect the language rights of Ukrainian minorities. On 8 December 2023, the Ukrainian parliament passed amendments to legislation on national minorities as part of meeting one of the European Commission's criteria for the opening of Ukrainian European Union membership negotiations.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, on 19 June 2022 the Ukrainian parliament passed two laws which placed restrictions on Russian books and music. The new laws ban Russian citizens from printing books unless they take Ukrainian citizenship, prohibit the import of books printed in Russia, Belarus and the occupied Ukrainian territories, and prohibit the reproduction in the media and public transport of music performed or created by post-1991 Russian citizens, unless the musicians are included in a "white list" of artists who have publicly condemned Russian aggression against Ukraine.
Beginning in 2023, some local authorities adopted additional moratoria on the public use of Russian-language cultural products. On 13 July 2023, the Kyiv City Council introduced such a moratorium in Kyiv, covering Russian-language cultural products including books, music and audiovisual works. Similar measures were subsequently adopted in some other Ukrainian cities. In 2026, the Odesa City Council considered a similar proposal that would apply to Russian-language music, films, theatrical performances and literature in public spaces, municipal cultural and educational institutions, municipal enterprises and public transport. Private businesses would be recommended, but not required, to refrain from such content, and private communication in Russian would not be affected. Unlike the 2022 national restriction on music, which primarily applies to works created or performed by citizens of Russia, the proposed Odesa measure is based on the Russian-language character of the cultural product and would therefore also cover Russian-language works by Ukrainian creators or performers.
In June 2023, president Zelenskyy introduced bill No. 9432 on as one of Ukraine's languages for international communication. The bill was adopted as Law No. 3760-IX on 4 June 2024. The law establishes English as one of the languages of international communication in Ukraine and provides for its use in specified public spheres, including public administration, education, culture, transport and health care.
In December 2025, the Ukrainian parliament amended the legislation through which Ukraine implements the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. Under Law No. 4699-IX, which entered into force on 13 June 2026, Ukraine applies the Charter to eighteen listed languages; Russian is no longer included among them.
History
Since the fall of the Soviet Union and the independence of Ukraine, the Russian language has dwindled. In 2001 it remained one of the two most used languages for business, legal proceedings, science, artistry, and many other spheres of everyday life. According to the 2001 census, 67.5% of the citizens of Ukraine regarded Ukrainian as their native language, with Russian being considered the native language for another 29.6%. Various other languages constituted the remaining 2.9%.
Soviet era
During the Soviet era, the status of Ukrainian was legally codified in 1922, when Ukrainian and Russian were declared to be of "national significance" and schools were allowed to use them both in teaching; they were never adopted as official languages of Soviet Ukraine but had formally equal status as "generally used languages". In practice, however, Ukrainian was mainly a rural language and had lower prestige than Russian, which was the language of the educated urban society. After an initial phase of official commitment to Ukrainization in the 1920s and early 1930s under the Korenizatsiia policy, the Soviet era was marked by an increasing trend toward Russification. In 1938 the study of Russian was made obligatory and in 1958 the study of the mother-tongue was made optional. From 1959 to 1989, on average 60-70% of the population spoke Ukrainian and 20% spoke Russian; Yiddish was also widely spoken by the decreasing Jewish population (from 14% in 1959 to 3.9% in 1989).
1989 law On Languages in the Ukrainian SSR
On 28 October 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the Law "On Languages in the Ukrainian SSR". The Ukrainian language was declared the only official language, while the other languages spoken in Ukraine were guaranteed constitutional protection. The government was obliged to create the conditions required for the development and use of Ukrainian language as well as languages of other ethnic groups, including Russian. Usage of other languages, along with Ukrainian, was allowed in local institutions located in places of residence of the majority of citizens of the corresponding ethnicities.[clarification needed] Citizens were guaranteed the right to use their native or any other languages and were entitled to address various institutions and organisations in Ukrainian, in Russian, or in another language of their work, or in a language acceptable to the parties.
The adoption of the "Law on Languages" preceded the Declaration of Independence of Ukraine (24 August 1991) by almost two years. The Ukrainian SSR was still part of the Soviet Union, and its parliament still dominated by the Communist Party of Ukraine. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the law, with some minor amendments, remained in force in the independent Ukrainian state. Ever since, there have been discussions on the potential adoption of Russian as a co-official language alongside Ukrainian, particularly raising debates during presidential and parliamentary election campaigns. Leonid Kuchma had made raising the status of Russian one of his 1994 electoral promises, but did not deliver it during his presidency.
Ukrainian Constitution The Constitution of Ukraine, adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on 28 June 1996, states at article 10: "The state language of Ukraine is the Ukrainian language. The State ensures the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of social life throughout the entire territory of Ukraine. In Ukraine, the free development, use and protection of Russian, and other languages of national minorities of Ukraine, is guaranteed".
2012 Law "On the Principles of State Language Policy"
On 7 February 2012 members of the Verkhovna Rada Serhii Kivalov and Vadym Kolesnychenko (both from the Party of Regions) entered a bill (commonly called "Kolesnychenko-Kivalov language bill"), that would have given the status of regional language to Russian and other minority languages. It allowed the use of minority languages in courts, schools and other government institutions in areas of Ukraine where the national minorities exceed 10% of the population.
Supporters of the 2012 bill argued it would have made life easier for Russian-speaking Ukrainians. Opponents feared that the adoption of Russian as a minority language could have spread rapidly, challenging Ukrainian and causing splits between eastern and western Ukraine.Language law triggers violence in Ukraine, Financial Times (4 July 2012) In practice Russian at the time was already used widely in official establishments in Ukraine.
In May 2012 Vadym Kolesnychenko, one of the authors of the 2012 language law, claimed that the law was supported by several higher education bodies, scientists and NGOs. On 9 February 2013, Russian president Vladimir Putin awarded him and another author of the language law, Serhiy Kivalov, with the Medal of Pushkin for their "great contribution to the preservation and promotion of the Russian language and culture abroad".
Some say that the bill contradicts the Constitution of Ukraine, violates the Budget Code, and aims to annihilate the Ukrainian language. It suffered a criticism in the conclusions of state authorities and their departments: the Main Scientific-Expert Bureau of the Ukrainian Parliament (23 May 2012), the Parliamentary Committee on Culture and Spirituality (23 September 2011), the Parliamentary Committee on Budget (3 November 2011), Ministry of Finance (9 September 2011), the Ministry of Justice (27 September 2011). The bill also failed to obtain the support of the specialized institutions of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine: the Linguistics Institute, the Institute of the Ukrainian Language, the Institute of political and ethno-national researches, the Shevchenko Institute of Literature, the Institute of State and Law, the Ukrainian linguistic-informational Fund, the Philology Institute of Kyiv University, and the Academy of Sciences of the High School of Ukraine.
Opinion adopted by the Venice Commission In December 2011, the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe issued an opinion on the draft law questioning whether the parallel use of Ukrainian and Russian was in compliance with article 10 of the Constitution: "the question remains whether [...] there are sufficient guarantees, in the current Draft Law, for the consolidation of the Ukrainian language as the sole State language, and of the role it has to play in the Ukrainian multilinguistic society".