Ukraine's language commissioner on Russian occupation, schools and protecting Ukrainian

Ivanovska discussed the suppression of Ukrainian in Russian-occupied territories, the decline of Russian-language instruction in Ukrainian schools, and the limits of her office's authority to enforce language legislation.

Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages under occupation

Ivanovska described the suppression of Ukrainian on Russian-occupied territories as one of the gravest threats to the language.

She said none of the seven schools that provided instruction in Ukrainian in Crimea before Russia's 2014 occupation remained.

The Crimean Tatar Resource Center independently reported in February 2025 that there were no schools teaching in Ukrainian left on the peninsula. Citing figures from Russia's occupation education authorities, the organization said only 249 students studied Ukrainian in the 2023–2024 academic year, compared with more than 13,000 in 2014.

The organization also reported a sharp decline in education in Crimean Tatar, the language of Crimea's Indigenous Crimean Tatar people. The number of classes teaching in Crimean Tatar fell from 384 before the occupation to 119, according to the center.

Crimean Tatars were subjected to mass deportation by Soviet authorities in 1944, when entire communities were forcibly removed from their homeland, primarily to Central Asia. Many began returning to Crimea in the late Soviet period and after Ukraine gained independence in 1991, rebuilding communities that had been uprooted for decades.

Ivanovska said Ukrainians living under Russian occupation should not be expected to demonstrate linguistic resistance at the expense of their safety.

"The main task now is for these people to survive physically," she said.

Russian-language instruction declines in Ukrainian schools

The number of classes offering instruction in Russian in Ukrainian schools has fallen from 1,864 in the 2019–2020 academic year to 17, Ivanovska said.

She attributed the change both to the gradual implementation of Ukraine's language legislation and to parents' choices about the language of their children's education.

The figures concern the language of instruction, not the language children use in private conversations.

Ukraine's state-language law, adopted in 2019, established requirements for the use of Ukrainian in public life. Ivanovska said further changes were needed to address the language environment in schools beyond formal lessons.

She expressed support for proposed legislation intended to strengthen the use of Ukrainian throughout the educational environment, including interactions outside classroom instruction.

How language protections are enforced

Ivanovska said her office primarily responds to complaints about violations of language legislation, including those involving education and public services.

Where an investigation establishes a violation, a first offense may result in a warning or a fine of 3,400 to 5,100 hryvnias, she said. Repeated violations can lead to higher penalties.

Kyiv generates the largest number of complaints, according to Ivanovska, while the service sector accounts for the largest share of reported violations.

She said her office was increasingly focusing on preventive work with local authorities, educational institutions and businesses rather than responding only to individual complaints.

Protecting Ukrainian without copying Russia's methods

Asked whether Ukraine should adopt the coercive methods Russia historically used to impose its language, Ivanovska rejected the idea.

"The great wisdom and strength of Ukrainians is that they are not Russians," she said. "We will never be like them."

She argued that strengthening Ukrainian should be grounded in respect for the language and Ukrainian identity rather than replicating Russia's methods of repression.

Ivanovska also called for greater attention to Ukrainian Sign Language and efforts to establish appropriate standards for its use.

The commissioner said she had repeatedly appealed to Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council to address threats to the Ukrainian language, but that the council had not considered the issue during her tenure.