The legislation in Ukraine regulating the use of the Ukrainian language does not apply to personal communication or religion, and does not provide for any criminal liability for violations of its norms, "language patrols" or "language inspectors", as propaganda claims. Ukrainians themselves do not see any harassment of Russian-speaking Ukrainians, as evidenced by the results of opinion polls.
Russia often claims that it protects traditional values and Orthodox Christianity, while destroying, damaging, or looting hundreds of churches in Ukraine.
Dating at least to 2008 or 2009, increasingly hostile language laid the groundwork for rejecting Ukraine’s existence as a state, a national group, and a culture.
What follows is a compilation of publicly available statements (readers are invited to submit by email any that we may have missed).
Experts such as Francine Hirsch, a professor of history at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and author of “Soviet Judgment at Nuremberg,” have pointed to such language as evidence of genocidal intent toward the Ukrainian people. Whether and how the concept of “genocide” applies to Russia’s campaign against Ukraine is the subject of debate, notwithstanding the reference in Article II of the Genocide Convention to “the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group, as such.”
UNESCO list of damaged cultural sites in Ukraine - 260 as of 19 June. (Note that this list includes only those sites that have been verified by UNESCO - a complete list would be far longer.)
Ukraine has not banned the use of the Russian language in the country.
A 2019 law established Ukrainian as the official language of Ukraine and strengthened its use in businesses, schools and the media.
Our ruling
Lavrov referenced the banning and prohibition of Russian in Ukraine, particularly in "education, the media, everyday contacts," during a press conference.
Despite a language law that establishes Ukrainian as the country's official language and prioritizes its use in civil society, Russian has not been banned.
We rate Lavrov's statement False.