On 15 July, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine appointed Olena Ivanivska as the new Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language. Born in 1968 in Kamianets-Podilskyi, Khmelnytskyi region, she is a Ukrainian folklorist, professor, doctor of philology and head of the Department of Folklore at Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.
The government’s decision was announced by Taras Melnychuk, a representative of the Cabinet of Ministers in the Verkhovna Rada, as cited by Ukrayinska Pravda. He clarified that Pavlo Poliansky was also among the applicants for the position.
Some activists criticised both candidates, saying that they allegedly do not have the necessary experience in human rights activities or in protecting the state language, which they said is an important requirement for the position.
The new ombudsman was appointed after the government dismissed the previous commissioner, Taras Kremin, on 2 July, as his five-year term ended. Kremin had been heading the institution since 2020.
In his final report for the first half of 2025, Taras Kremin noted that the Ombudsman received 1,410 complaints about violations of language legislation, which is 348 more than in the same period in 2024. Most complaints came from Kyiv, as well as Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Kyiv and Donetsk regions.
Most of the complaints concerned online commerce, public information and the service sector. In particular, there were reports of the lack of Ukrainian-language versions of websites, advertising and signage in other languages, and cases where employees of institutions served customers in Russian. Complaints were also received in the areas of education, culture, media, healthcare, government, transport, sports, book publishing and others.
It is expected that Olena Ivanovska will continue the work of the institution aimed at protecting the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life.
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