Russia understands the power of language. And Ukrainians continue to teach their children Russian
Russia plans to exclude Ukrainian language from primary, basic and secondary education programs in the occupied territories from the new school year.
Until now, parents in the Russian-occupied districts of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions, areas where the ethnic majority has been Ukrainians for centuries, could still choose Ukrainian for their children's education. And, by the way, there is a well-known statistic: in 2023, 46 percent of parents in the occupied part of Zaporizhzhia region did so. But now this option will no longer exist. The Ukrainian language in the occupied Ukrainian territories is finally being marginalized, turning into an unnecessary and even dangerous language.
While discussions continue in Ukrainian society – when some of our compatriots continue to call for not focusing public attention on language issues and argue that this divides Ukrainians – Russia is confidently and methodically uniting everyone. In Russian .
And, by the way, it has always been this way. It was Putin who succeeded in abolishing the norm of compulsory study of the languages of the peoples of Russia in the schools of the national republics. And there have been no Ukrainian schools in the Russian Federation since the Holodomor in the Kuban. I remember very well what circles of hell Ukrainians in the Russian capital had to go through to get the opportunity to open at least a Sunday school for Ukrainian children. Of course, now it no longer exists, and the organizer of this school, an elderly man, was forced to flee Russia after the outbreak of the great war under threat of arrest.
And this is a huge civilizational difference between the two warring states. Russia knows for sure that language matters. It uses the Russian language as a tool for Russification of the population – wherever that population is located.
It dismantles the national identity of those it conquers brick by brick and then uses them as cannon fodder to conquer other nations.
At the same time, it protects the interests of the Russian language where it has managed to gain a foothold. Therefore, the condition of the special status of the Russian language was, is and will be a condition for the Kremlin to end the Russian-Ukrainian war. Do not even doubt it .
And Ukrainians continue to convince themselves that their identity can be realized no matter what language they speak. They continue to instill Russian in the minds of their children. They continue to accuse those who speak about it of striving for cheap popularity .
And so they have every chance of winning the battle, but losing the war. And so remain a colonized people, singing along with those who consistently impose their language as a civilizational "dagger.".