Ukraine’s language ombudsman has called for Russian to be removed from the list of protected ‘minority’ languages due to a mistranslation in an official document. The language ombudsman, a government-appointed official tasked with safeguarding the rights of linguistic minorities, argues that the inclusion of Russian in the list is a result of an administrative error rather than a genuine recognition of the language’s status within the country.
If adopted by parliament, the updated list of protected languages would include Belarusian, Bulgarian, Gagauz, Crimey Tatar, Modern Greek, German, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Hungarian, Czech, and Hebrew. This change aims to streamline the recognition of minority languages and ensure that only those languages with established communities and cultural significance are formally acknowledged by the government.
The proposal has sparked debate among linguists and policymakers, with some expressing concern that the removal of Russian from the list could affect the rights of those who speak the language in regions such as Crimea and eastern Ukraine. However, the ombudsman maintains that the error was unintentional and that the revised list would better reflect the linguistic diversity of the country.