According to a law from 2019, service workers in Ukraine could be fined if they spoke to clients in Russian. The new rules for service personnel to speak to clients in Ukrainian are becoming a law from 16 January 2021.

Fines for speaking Russian in Ukraine: When and how much?

In Soviet Union Russian was the uniting language of all 15 national republics and everyone had to learn it at school. The USSR peacefully dissolved in 1991 and since then most countries made efforts to stop the use of Russian language and make sure everyone who lives there learned the local dialect.

However, in Ukraine many people still cannot speak Ukrainian well enough and prefer to communicate in Russian.

This is why the government makes conscious efforts to mandate the use of Ukrainian language in all spheres. From January 2021 all service personnel has to speak in Russian to the clients and can only switch to Russian on request of the patron, KP.ua reported.

From July 2022 service personnel could be fined if they speak in Russian to a client without him or her requesting it.

Of course, the law doesn’t specifically spell out that the requirements are to stop people in Ukraine speaking Russian. It simply mandates where and how the national language has to be used.

The news made people working in service industries concerned, as many employees can only speak very basic Ukrainian.

The law itself was voted in 2019, giving employees and employers ample time to get ready, but most businesses didn’t worry about these things until now, when they have to act in accordance with new rules already next month.

The first violation of the rule to speak in Ukrainian as default language would result in a request to follow the rules. The second violation would result in a warning. If the same problem is detected for the third time, there are fines from 51,000 to 68,000 of Ukrainian hryvnia (USD 1,800-2,400).

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