Ukraine's third-biggest city Odesa will decide this week whether to back a controversial plan to ban the Russian language in the arts. The proposal being considered by councillors in Odesa on the Black Sea coast aims to add to existing restrictions on Russian imposed by national legislation. It is particularly significant because Odesa is overwhelmingly Russian-speaking, although the ban would only affect public spaces and everyday usage of Russian would remain unaffected.
For millions of Ukrainians, Russian is their first language including many of the troops defending the country in its war with Russia. But Ukrainian is the only state language and spoken by the majority, and some see Russian as a tool of Russian influence. The proposal in Odesa, which is targeted daily by Russian drone and missile strikes, calls for a complete halt to Russian-language content in music and literature, in streets, parks, public institutions and state-run arts and entertainment venues.
It would also recommend a ban in privately owned spaces. In a city famous for Russian-language writers and musicians, it has provoked strong passions. The ban would extend in public spaces to old Odesa songs almost universally known throughout the former Soviet Union.
All Russian-language books would be removed from display in public libraries. Currently, they can be shown, but not prominently. "The Russian language is a weapon of Russia, and we need to try to fix that," says Odesa lawyer Artem Kartashov, who has advised local authorities on an official programme to "decolonise" the city of its historic Russian legacy.
"With Russian-speaking music and other things, Russians try to deconstruct Ukrainian identity and influence especially young people, because they grow up in a Russian-speaking environment." But comic actor Borys Barsky, one of Odesa's best-known entertainers, says: "Russian isn't [only] the language of Putin, it's the language of [writers like] Dostoyevsky and Bulgakov. "Who benefits from setting people against other people who love Ukraine just as deeply, only love it in a different language? Only Putin benefits from this." Russian President Vladimir Putin has often referred to what he falsely describes as repression of the Russian-speaking minority in Ukraine as one of his justifications for launching his invasion of the country.
Russian and Ukrainian are closely related, but distinct in many ways. Many in Ukraine speak a mixture of the two, known as surzhyk. Russian is the native language of President Volodymyr Zelensky, which he used often in his election campaign but has since used only Ukrainian in public.
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