The Language Issue in Ukraine: Legal and Educational Challenges in the Budjak Region

This study addresses the language issue in the Budjak region, located in the southwesternmost part of Ukraine’s Odesa oblast. After providing geographical and historical context, recent Ukrainian measures in the field of language policy are commented on, while examining their consequences for heritage language instruction among the linguistically diverse local population. It is shown how political efforts to elevate Ukrainian’s status over Russian nationwide are inadvertently disadvantaging ethnic minorities, as are numerous in Budjak. I further argue that the language issue in Ukraine is exceptional in its strong impact on the sensitivities of minority language speakers in the country, in particular those who speak languages other than Russian.