Ukraine and the languages of ethnic minorities

The issue of ethnic minorities continues to feature on the agenda of Romanian-Ukrainian relations.

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Bogdan Matei, 11.12.2023, 14:00

After
becoming independent from the defunct Soviet Union in August 1991,
the Ukrainian state for a long time maintained an ambivalent attitude
with respect to its many ethnic minorities. On the one hand, at an
individual level, the ethnic minority status is not an obstacle to
social advancement. The country’s president Volodymyr Zelensky is a
member of the Jewish community, the defence minister Rustem
Umarov hails from the Tartar community, while the governor of the
Mykolaiv region has distant
Korean
roots. On the other hand, with respect to the collective rights of
ethnic minorities, the political class in Kyiv has been relatively
reticent and criticism on this subject has come both from at home and
abroad. Experts say it wasn’t until Ukraine was awarded the status
of EU candidate country that it began to adopt a more flexible
position on this subject, given that respect for the rights of ethnic
minorities is a fundamental value of
the European Union.

The
protection of persons belonging to national ethnic minorities is
important for a democratic and European Ukrainian state, said
Romania’s foreign minister Luminiţa Odobescu during joint
statements with Ukraine’s deputy prime minister for
European and Euro-Atlantic integration Olga Stefanishyna.
Earlier,
Ukraine’s Parliament adopted legislation amending a number of laws
on the rights of national minorities. The bill proposed by the
authorities in Kyiv to amend the relevant legislation is a positive
step forward and a much-welcome move, said minister Odobescu.
She
added that the Romanian side would continue to have a transparent and
constructive approach to this issue. Olga Stefanishyna said the
legislation relating to ethnic minorities was so drafted as to foster
inclusive dialogue with the latter. We are grateful to the
Romanian minority who became involved in the entire process and to
our counterparts from the Romanian government who shared with us
their legislation and best practice. […] In Ukraine we have
thousands of children who benefit from education in the Romanian
language. Now their number will be bigger. Ukraine has moved to
recognise Romanian as the official language of the Republic of
Moldova, said the Ukrainian official, referring to Kyiv’s
decision to finally invalidate the Soviet misconception about the
existence of a Moldovan language different from the Romanian
language.

Neighbouring
Ukraine is home to over 400,000 ethnic Romanians, most of whom live
in northern Bukovina, the north and south of Bessarabia and the
Hertsa region, former Romanian territories which the Soviet Union
annexed in 1940 and which Ukraine inherited as the legal successor of
the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. When Russia invaded Ukraine
last year, many ethnic Romanians went to fight under the Ukrainian
flag, and a large number of them have lost their lives on the
battlefield. (CM)