Bilingualism would doom dignity fight, language chief says
Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Olena Ivanovska has said she is confident that neither the negotiating team nor President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will give in to the language issue in peace talks with the Russian Federation.
"This is not the first time that Russia is trying to strike at our 'spiritual tablets' - language, faith, cultural identity. This is their usual tool of influence, not news. The attempt to impose Russian as a second state language is not about the rights of citizens, it is an attempt to split Ukrainian society, introduce internal destabilization, undermine the very essence of Ukrainian statehood. For the Kremlin, this has always been more than a question of linguistics - it is a way to keep under control, it is a colonial legacy that we have rejected and are not going to return," Ivanovska said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, answering the question of how crucial and unshakable in her opinion the issue of language is if we are talking about a real peace agreement in the war.
She emphasized that Article 10 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which establishes Ukrainian as the only state language, is inviolable and cannot be a subject of bargaining.
"I am sure that neither the negotiating group nor the guarantor of the Constitution - the president - will put language on the scales in the negotiations. Because both language and faith are the soul of the nation. And the soul is not traded. Especially with those who came to destroy it," she added.
Ivanovska emphasized that language is a red line that cannot be crossed under any circumstances, and both the state and society must stand firm on this.
"If we today agree to bilingualism under pressure or as a "compromise" - it will be a rollback to the old colonial model, where Ukrainian will once again become marginal, "home", and the language of the empire will dominate the public space. We have already been through this: when the Ukrainian language was called "uncompetitive," "primitive," when it was ousted from education, the army, culture, and other state institutions. If we retreat - it will be the beginning of the end of our struggle for dignity," the language ombudswoman stated.
As previously reported, the media reported that the Russian Federation is demanding that the Armed Forces of Ukraine completely withdraw from the areas of Donetsk and Luhansk regions that it has failed to capture, and is also demanding the official status of the Russian language and permission for the unrestricted activity of the Russian Orthodox Church in Ukraine as its conditions for concluding a peace treaty, discussed during Vladimir Putin's meeting with US President Donald Trump in Anchorage, Alaska.
