Number of complaints about language law violations in Ukraine rises to 2,888

In 2024, the Ukrainian Language Ombudsman received 2,888 complaints — more than in the previous period. At the same time, the number of sanctions increased and cases of Russian-language use by officials of state authorities became more frequent.

This was stated by Language Ombudsman Olena Ivanovska, as reported by Media Center Ukraine.

According to Ivanovska, the largest share of violations — 26% — was recorded in online representations. Second place was taken by signage and advertising (19%), and third by the service sector (18%).

“The quality of complaint submissions has also improved and the processing of administrative cases on language violations has become more active — up 63%. The number of sanctions has also grown. A total of 706 sanctions were applied — 57.2% of these are warnings — and 95 fines were imposed,” Ivanovska said.

The ombudsman also noted that compared to the previous year, officials of state authorities have been communicating more frequently in Russian in the public sphere. At the same time, she assessed this trend positively:

“This is connected with the use of a non-state language by officials in public communication. But I view this positively from a democratic standpoint — citizens no longer forgive officials for dereliction of duty.”

In addition, Ivanovska stressed the need to increase the size of fines for violations of language legislation and had previously already approached the Cabinet of Ministers with a corresponding proposal to raise administrative sanctions.

The Secretariat of the Language Ombudsman received a total of 3,122 appeals from Ukrainians last year — significantly more than the year before, when there were 2,314 such appeals.