“There are no legal instruments in Ukraine to ban Russian-language versions of websites,” – the language ombudsman said

There are no legal tools in Ukraine to ban Russian-language versions of websites. Under Article 27 of the Law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language,” websites may be maintained in other languages as long as the Ukrainian version is the main one.

This was stated by the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, Olena Ivanovska.

She was responding to a petition on the Cabinet of Ministers’ website calling for a ban on Russian-language versions of websites, which yesterday collected the required 25,000 signatures.

“Let’s be honest: this debate around the petition demanding a total ban on Russian-language versions of websites is evidence, or a symptom, of our deep pain as a society. Ukrainians are tired of this shadow of the colonial language in the public space, they want to cleanse the digital environment and see online the Ukraine that our defenders fight for every day. These feelings cannot be ignored; they are legitimate,” Ivanovska said.

According to her, banning other language versions of a site would violate the Constitution, and Ukraine would face international complaints.

“As soon as we cross this line of prioritizing [Ukrainian] and move towards a total ban, we violate constitutional guarantees. And as a result, we open the door to international complaints and give our opponent, our enemy, a convenient pretext to accuse Ukraine of language repression,” the ombudsperson added.

She recalled that the Verkhovna Rada has passed a law that removes Russian from the list of languages protected in Ukraine under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages.

Earlier, Ivanovska noted that compared to 2022, citizens of Ukraine have actually begun speaking Russian more often.