Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has enacted a law that removes the protected language status for Russian, restricting its use in education and public services.

The President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, has enacted a law that strips the Russian language of its protected status in the territory of the country. The announcement was made by Ruslan Stefanchuk, who emphasized the need to protect the Ukrainian linguistic space and to respect the European commitments undertaken by Kyiv. The new legislation allows for the restriction of the use of the Russian language in education and public services, with authorities arguing that the language of a state considered an aggressor should not benefit from special protective measures. Since the beginning of the Russian invasion in 2022, the use of the Russian language in Ukraine has decreased significantly, although before the war about one-third of citizens spoke it, especially in the eastern and southern regions. The status of the Russian language has also been a sensitive subject in the political life of the country in the past, being one of the factors that fueled the separatist rebellion in eastern Ukraine in 2014. In the same regional context, Estonia has announced that it will gradually eliminate the Russian language as a language of instruction by 2030, reflecting a similar trend observed in other Baltic states.