Pecularities of the state language policy in Ukraine during the war

The Ukrainian language is among the determining factors of the national identity of the Ukrainian people, shaped by the historical progress of an indomitable state in the center of Europe. With the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war, it became a marker of citizens’ self-awareness, a sign of unity and freedom, and a distinction between “own” and “foreign”. Instead, the state language policy evolved from a nominative ideological postulate, scattered in declarative documents, into a tangible set of tools for protecting human rights and freedoms and the country’s language system as a whole. Despite the long-term lack of consistent steps to protect the constitutional status of the state language, which led to the creation of numerous legislative initiatives, programs and strategies, including some of a threatening nature, real historical changes in the linguistic landscape of the state began only with the enactment of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as a State Language” (2019). This law provided guaranteed protection for the Ukrainian language as the state language, as well as the rights of Ukrainian citizens to information and services in the state language throughout the entire territory of the country. In addition to effective mechanisms for the protection of the state language, the emergence of the main language institutions, namely: the State Language Protection Commissioner, the National Commission for State Language Standards, made state language policies tangible. Cultural ideology, language stability, and high public trust in the establishment of national priorities became evident. This is also noticeable at the level of regional language policy implementation, which, emerging from a state of challenges and dangers to a high degree of state activity, public support, and mass transition to the Ukrainian language, represents the true defense of the rights of indomitable citizens during the most extensive Ukrainization of the century.