{"id":1253538,"date":"2025-06-29T12:12:19","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T09:12:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/language-matters-how-not-to-lose-ukrainian-identity\/"},"modified":"2025-06-30T00:58:48","modified_gmt":"2025-06-29T21:58:48","slug":"language-matters-how-not-to-lose-ukrainian-identity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prm.ua\/en\/language-matters-how-not-to-lose-ukrainian-identity\/","title":{"rendered":"Words that Define Us: How Language Protects Ukrainian Identity"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: Author’s Facebook<\/a> page<\/em><\/p>\n

Beginning with the new academic year, Russia intends to eliminate the Ukrainian language from primary, secondary, and general education programs in the occupied territories.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Until now, in the territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions occupied by Russia \u2014 areas where Ukrainians have always been the ethnic majority \u2014 parents could still choose Ukrainian as the language of instruction for their children. Statistics show that in 2023, 46% of parents in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region made this choice.<\/p>\n

That option is no longer available. Ukrainians are being pushed to the margins in the occupied territories \u2014 treated as unnecessary, even dangerous.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, debates continue in Ukrainian society, with some compatriots urging not to focus on language issues, arguing that it divides the nation. At the same time, Russia is uniting everyone \u2014 in Russian. And this has always been the case. It was Putin who abolished the requirement to teach the native languages of ethnic groups in Russia\u2019s national republics. And there have been no Ukrainian-language schools in the Russian Federation since the Holodomor in the Kuban.<\/p>\n\t\t