Ukrainian Language

RT has the story: Ukrainian children still speaking Russian – regulator

Here's an excerpt:

Since gaining its independence in 1991, Ukraine has largely been a bilingual nation, with most citizens able to speak or understand both Russian and Ukrainian, particularly in the eastern half of the country. After the 2014 US-backed coup in Kiev, however, Ukraine’s new authorities abolished Russian as an official regional language and have adopted policies aimed at suppressing and outlawing it, arguing that it represents a threat to national unity and security. 

In 2019, the Ukrainian parliament passed a law requiring Ukrainian to be used exclusively in nearly all aspects of public life, including education, entertainment, politics, business and the service industry, obliging all Ukrainian citizens to know the language. It also requires that 90% of TV and film content produced in the country be made in Ukrainian. From July 17, the use of the Russian language in Ukrainian media will be virtually outlawed, Kremen has said.

This forced Ukrainization was one of the reasons why Russian-speaking residents living in the east of the country rejected the post-coup authorities in Kiev in 2014. Many of these regions, namely the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, as well as Kherson and Zaporozhye regions, have since joined Russia after overwhelmingly voting to do so in public referendums in 2022.

There is something wrong with Ukraine, well, there are many things wrong with Ukraine, many of which are caused by the dunderheads in Washington D. C., but this kind of thing makes me think there is some fundamental problem that made all the chaos possible.

There was a bunch of noise in the USA a few years back with people complaining about immigrants not speaking English. That seems to have died out. Was there a court ruling? I don't remember, but Spanish crops up now and again, it helps when you are dealing with working people as opposed to my fellow retirees (useless twerps, the lot of them). My Spanish is limited. When people ask if I speak Spanish I like to trot out my favorite phrase: 'Una mas cerveza fria por favor'. Yes, beer is feminine. I had to check.