"Russia" or "russia": the language commission made changes to the Ukrainian spelling

The National Commission on State Language Standards discussed the use of the name of an aggressor state at its regular meeting. In particular, it involved writing the word "russia" in lowercase. Therefore, it is allowed to write "russian federation", "moscow", etc. in lowercase. However, on one condition.

In unofficial texts, it is not a mistake to capitalize proper names related to the aggressor country. This decision was made at a meeting of the National Commission for State Language Standards.

When to write "russia" in lowercase?

Proper names "Russian Federation", "Russia", "Moscow", "Moscow", "Kingdom of Moscow", "Russian Empire", "State Duma of the Russian Federation", "Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation", etc. may be written in lower case. This will not be considered a departure from the norms of the Ukrainian language only in unofficial texts. This is stated in a statement by the National Commission on State Language Standards.

"Bearing in mind the heroic fight of the Ukrainian people for the independence of the Ukrainian State, taking into account the appeal posted on social networking sites by the Deputy Prime Minister - Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine, Iryna Vereshchuk, to enter the name of the aggressor country with a lowercase letter, the National Commission for State Language Standards at its meeting on September 15, 2023 (minutes ? 83) discussed this issue,” reads the commission's announcement.

Iryna Vereshchuk called on the National Commission to resolve the issue of the spelling of the name of the aggressor country

Let us recall that on September 8, on her Facebook, Iryna Vereshchuk called on the National Commission to pay attention to solving the issue of the spelling of the name of the aggressor country.

“Today I read in the media about a debate about the correct spelling of the name of an enemy country. In fact, Ukrainians have been writing this name with a lowercase letter for a long time. There is probably no debate. But, we have such an institution as the National Commission for State Language Standards. It was she who had enough time to do her direct work long ago - to officially propose appropriate changes in the spelling of the name of the enemy state and its leaders call on the National Commission not to waste time and formalize what all Ukrainians are already doing," we read in the post.

However, in official letters, appeals and statements, Ukrainians are obliged to continue writing their surnames associated with the aggressor country with capital letters.

Will Russia's official name be changed?

After the Russians launched a full-scale, full-scale war against Ukraine, many Ukrainians decided to write the name of the Russian Federation with a lower case letter in order to reduce the value of the country. It is worth mentioning that in Ukraine it was even proposed to implement a project to change the name of Russia to "Moscovia".

In March 2023, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine stated that in order to officially change the name of the Russian Federation, a decision of experts who will accept the proposed initiative is needed. Earlier, the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, in one of its regulations, changed the decision on the correctness of writing the name of Russia with a lower case letter in official documents. This was due to the lack of approval of the application by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine.