Saving the Russian language in Ukraine requires denazification of a country where Russian speakers have been persecuted by Nazis after the 2014 coup, pro-Kremlin media writes.
NEWS: What Volodymyr Zelenskyy's regime is doing against everything Russian in Ukraine is pure Nazism, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said. “The second thing that the authors of the coup d'état did was to exterminate the Russian language, Russian culture, everything that connected Ukraine and Russia in one way or another. Denazification also falls within this category, because what Zelenskyy's regime is doing against everything Russian is pure Nazism”, Lavrov told a meeting of the Diplomatic Club, organized under the aegis of the Diplomatic Academy of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation. After the 2014 coup d'état, Ukrainian authorities started fighting not only against Soviet history, but also everything related to Russia, including the Russian language.
NARRATIVES: 1. In 2014, a coup d'état took place in Ukraine directed against Russia. 2. Denazification is necessary in Ukraine to stop the persecution of Russian speakers. 3. Ukraine is a Nazi state.
PURPOSE: To legitimize (justify) the continuation of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. To manipulate public opinion in Russia and ex-Soviet space. To create the false impression that Ukraine’s linguistic policies mirror Nazi practices.
Fact: Ukraine's linguistic policies were a consequence of the war launched by Russia in 2014 and have no connection to Nazism
WHY THE NARRATIVES ARE FALSE: The narratives promoted by Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, amplified by RIA Novosti news agency, contain multiple false narratives. The 2014 events in Ukraine were not a “coup d'état”, but a street movement known as “Euromaidan” or the "Revolution of Dignity", which ended with the ousting of pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, after fleeing to Russia. The 2014 street movement was triggered by the pro-Russian government's refusal to sign the EU Association Agreement, not by anti-Russian sentiment. International organizations have confirmed the legitimacy of the political transition in Ukraine, contrary to the narrative backed by Moscow. In the spring and autumn of 2014, presidential and parliamentary elections were held in Ukraine, and international observers did not identify any serious violations of the voting process.
Ukraine’s linguistic legislation, in particular the Law on the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as a State Language, adopted in 2019, does not prohibit the use of Russian, but aims to consolidate the Ukrainian language in the public sphere, after decades of forced Russification of Ukraine. In 2023, Ukraine amended a number of laws, criticized in recent years by Hungary, Romania, Poland and other states, in order to comply with European standards. Due to the full-scale Russian invasion, a number of provisions of Ukrainian legislation do not yet address the observance of all the rights of Russian speakers. These rights will be restored after the end of the war (the lifting of martial law), as Kyiv believes that Russian media outlets and organizations in Ukraine pose a potential threat or represent Moscow’s space of influence. What is certain is that Ukraine's linguistic policies were a consequence of the war started by Russia in 2014 and escalated in 2022. Therefore, Kyiv reacted to Russian aggression by adopting these laws, not the other way around.
Strengthening the national language is a common practice in East-European states and cannot be equated with Nazi ideology, which promoted racial superiority and genocide. This comparison completely ignores the historical and political context in Ukraine, where the Ukrainian language was systematically suppressed during the Soviet and Tsarist periods through Russification policies. The allegations of “Nazism” are contradicted by the political reality in Ukraine, where far-right parties have marginal representation in Parliament, and president Volodymyr Zelenskyy is of Jewish origin and was democratically elected with over 73% of the vote. The Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Center and other Jewish organizations have condemned Russia's attempts at instrumentalizing accusations of Nazism against Ukraine. Furthermore, in 2015, Kyiv banned Nazi and communist ideology and symbols. Despite the existence of extremist forces in Ukraine, there is no basis for labeling Ukraine a Nazi state. The term denazification applied to Hitler’s Germany after the end of World War II and was used to refer to the elimination of elements of Nazi ideology from society life. It is worth noting that Ukrainian servicemen played a very important role in the Soviet army, helping secure victory over Nazism, and the current territory of Ukraine was devastated by Nazi forces.
BACKGROUND: The statements of the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry in Moscow were made in the context of the organization of negotiations in Turkey, with the aim of reaching a peace plan or at least a ceasefire agreement in the war started by Russia. Representatives of the Russian delegation and the pro-Kremlin media said that talks on peace in Ukraine must focus on identifying solutions to eliminate the “root causes”. Among the solutions proposed by Moscow are the disarmament of Ukraine, the “denazification” of society and Kyiv recognizing a number of territories in the south-east being part of the Russian Federation. Moscow has reiterated these narratives in order to delay the conflict settlement process and to equate peace with Ukraine's surrender. Lavrov resorts to the rhetoric of “denazification” precisely at a time when the international community is pressing for peace negotiations and when Russia is facing severe economic sanctions. These statements are part of a classic pattern of Russian propaganda, which exploits sensible aspects of historical matters related to World War II to justify aggression against Ukraine. The meta-narrative about Ukraine’s Nazism was amplified after 2014, when Ukraine adopted a pro-European orientation to the detriment of Russian influence.
