We regard the decision by the Russian authorities to ban the study of the Ukrainian language in schools in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine as yet another manifestation of Moscow’s genocidal policy.

Imperial Russia, which systematically manipulates the language issue to justify its aggression, is pursuing a deliberate policy of russification, assimilation, genocidal extermination of entire nations, suppression of other cultures, and erasure of national identity.

We remind that over the centuries, Moscow attempted to ban the Ukrainian language more than 130 times. In the end, the authors of these efforts perished along with their decrees, circulars, and denunciations—while the Ukrainian language outlived all its oppressors.

To the Russian chauvinists who have once again decided to “ban” the Ukrainian language in Kherson region, we can respond with the words of a great native of Kherson, Mykola Kulish: “Every word is persuasive when it rings with the sound of weapons behind it!” Today, the Ukrainian language is not unarmed. Behind it stands the strength of the Ukrainian army and its weapons. That is why all Russian “bans” are just as fake and temporary as the Russian occupation itself. 

The occupiers will perish, while Kulish’s Chaplynka and the rest of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and our South were and will remain Ukraine. And when the Russian boot is finally gone from Ukrainian soil, it will be followed by the powerful and resolute Ukrainian word.