Following the stepping down of Tetiana Monakhova, who was spectacularly ignored by the government, the appointment of Taras Kremin as Ukraine’s State Language Protection Commissioner precluded any dialogue and compromise with the minor ethnics in the multi-ethnic, and therefore multi-language Ukraine. (In an interview Monakhova did not hide that she had experienced complete ignorance both by the President and the government, and that the state was unwilling to provide her financial support including salary, and infrastructure.) Unfortunately, in the coordinate system of Ukrainian as a state language and minority languages, Kremin’s activities not focus on equal treatment, but are rather dominated by exclusionary voices. In his sharp statements, the Ombudsman even states that anyone who does not like the provisions of the Law of Ukraine ’On Ensuring the Functioning of Ukrainian as the State Language’ may even move from Ukraine to a country where he or she can feel more comfortable. Taras Kremin is obviously perfectly aware of the ethnic and linguistic map of Ukraine, so he said the abovementioned sentence keeping this in mind, which is extremely sad.
Something got messed up if the state authorities see the inner enemy in peaceful national minorities, and hostile sentiments are projected on the language, on the culture and on the traditions of the minorities. Kiev makes a fatal mistake when handles the national minorities as internal enemies, instead of seeing them as internal value, capable of turning Ukraine into a prosperous country, and instead of insisting them to stay and strengthening their rights, it is urging them to leave.
Why does the Ombudsman think that if Ukrainian ’language guards’ are deployed in ministries and county and city administrations in areas where one can count on with huge number of persons belonging to national minorities, which predominantly communicate in their own language, then the necessary cooperation between the State and its Citizens will be more effective if they are allowed to speak only in Ukrainian? Kremin probably asked himself the question: is it realistic that if a Russian-speaking civil servant and a native Russian-speaker client discuss an official business in a state institution, there will one of them speak or answer in Ukrainian? The other question is: would the Russian-speaking client request to be informed in Ukrainian about his or her official matter? The answers must have been definite even to him: this is far from realistic, however, with the recommendation of Taras Kremin, persons responsible for the protection of the Ukrainian language can start their work in Ukraine-Absurdistan, ie the state’s bogus interest has been put before the interest of the country’s most important and valuable resources’, the Citizen’s essential interests. In 2021, this value system, which even threatens those who do not speak Ukrainian with fines, is not only ridiculous but also unacceptable.
In the 21st century it is also intolerable to list people and institutions on the grounds of nationality and language. The mother tongue is the most precious thing in the world, a value that must be preserved not only at the level of the country and the society, but also at the level of the family and the individual. Is there anyone in Ukraine who could not agree with this? And if so, why we need to list ethnic or bilingual schools? Ukraine should not be afraid of the new generations, be they Ukrainian or other native speakers, but should support them, preserve ethnic minority communities, their traditions, their language, dissuade their members from emigration. This is the only way for Ukraine to survive, and only then to become a modern European state which is able to integrate its many national minorities into a strong unity. Each government has the right to promote the state language (it is a must for a government!), but instead of applying coercive measures it should do it constructively, by using positive motivation — e.g. stimulating the production of high-quality Ukrainian movies, and broadcasting high-standard Ukrainian pop music by the radio stations.
As long as the State intends to make its ethnic minorities’ life impossible through targeted measures which are masked as protective measures concerning the Ukrainian language, no one and nothing can stop emigration. Until any of the foreign colleagues of Taras Kremin protests against his amok, one must believe that the goal set up as a result of the superpowers’s deal is ultimately nothing else than Ukraine’s national disintegration. And this can only be avoided if self-conscious and brave Ukrainian citizens, be they Ukrainian, Russian or of any nationality, firmly reject the provocations encouraged by Kiev, between Ukrainians and ethnic minorities.
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