66% of Ukrainians against Russian language in official communication, highest rate since the '90s – infographic
Most Ukrainians (66%) believe that the Russian language should be excluded from official communication. This is the highest level since the 1990s, as in 1997, only 18% of Ukrainians supported this idea, and 21% in 2015.
Source: results of a poll conducted by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS)
Details: Overall, in 2024, only 10% of Ukrainians would like to see the Russian language either as an official language in their region or as a second-state language. Instead, 81% either wish to remove it from official communication nationwide or oppose its use in their region.
The younger the respondents, the more actively they insist on removing the Russian language from official communication. Among the youngest respondents (18–29 years old), 84% insist on completely removing the Russian language from official communication.
Among people aged 30-59, the figures range from 66-69%, among those aged 60-69 – 56%, and among respondents aged 70 and above – 50%.
Sociologists have been asking Ukrainians about the desired status of the Russian language in Ukraine since the 1990s. In 1997, only 18% of Ukrainians supported removing the Russian language from official communication.
At the same time, 36% believed that Russian should be official in regions where the majority supports it, and 39% thought it should be made a second state language in the country. Until 2013, the proportion of those advocating for removing Russian language from official communication remained relatively unchanged (19%).
After the Revolution of Dignity, there was a decrease in those supporting the state status of the Russian language (19%) and a slight increase in those favouring its official status in specific regions where the majority desires it (up to 52%).
The percentage of those advocating for the complete removal of Russian language from the official sphere remained almost the same as before the Revolution (21%).
However, after the full-scale invasion, attitudes towards the status of the Russian language underwent significant changes. In all regions, there was a sharp increase in those who believe that Russian should not be taught in schools at all (in 2019, it was only 8%, and by 2023, it had risen to 52%).
As of February 2024, most Ukrainians believe that the Russian language should be removed from official communication.
The new survey conducted by KISS took place from 17 to 23 February 2024. It involved 1052 respondents aged 18 and older, residing in all regions of Ukraine (except for the Autonomous Republic of Crimea).
The sample did not include residents of territories temporarily not controlled by the Ukrainian government, as well as citizens who left the country after 24 February 2022.
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