"Over time, this initial emotional impulse seems to have subsided, and some Russian-speaking Ukrainians have reverted to their old ways. A significant proportion of young people in schools, and sometimes even teachers, continue to speak Russian to each other. Nevertheless, the use of Ukrainian in schools continues to increase, according to a study conducted by the State Service of Education Quality of Ukraine (SSEQU) and the Commissioner for the Protection of the Ukrainian Language in April and May 2025."
"About 48% of the students surveyed in Ukraine, a bilingual country, said that they communicated exclusively in Ukrainian with each other, an increase of 7 percentage points over the previous school year. But the finding does not apply equally to all regions. In Kyiv, Ukraine's capital, there is a negative trend: The proportion of students who use only Ukrainian has fallen by 10 points to 17%."
"Oksana, who did not want to give her real name, is a teacher at a school in Kyiv. "The children speak Ukrainian in class, but when the bell rings, they start speaking Russian among themselves," she told DW. "We even have a boy who wants to speak Russian in class. His family is Russian-speaking, and he has difficulty understanding Ukrainian.""
After Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, many Russian-speaking Ukrainians initially refrained from using Russian and switched to Ukrainian; that impulse later subsided for some, and some reverted to previous language habits. A significant share of young people and sometimes even teachers continue to speak Russian among themselves. Nationwide, about 48% of students reported communicating exclusively in Ukrainian, an increase of seven percentage points from the prior school year. Regional differences persist: Kyiv experienced a decline in exclusive Ukrainian use, falling ten points to 17%. In schools, students may speak Ukrainian in class but switch to Russian or Surzhyk outside lessons.
Read at www.dw.com
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