Russian invasion of Ukraine
97-581: The Sich Battalion ( Ukrainian : Батальйон "Сiч" ), officially known as the 4th Sich Company of the Kyiv Regiment ( 4-та рота «Січ» полку «Київ» , 4-ta rota "Sich" polku "Kyiv" ), is a Ukrainian special police battalion consisting of volunteers from Kyiv . The unit was formed in June 2014 by volunteers from the far-right party Svoboda at the start of the war in Donbas . The Sich Battalion
194-414: A weak yer vowel that would eventually disappear completely, for example Old East Slavic котъ /kɔtə/ > Ukrainian кіт /kit/ 'cat' (via transitional stages such as /koˑtə̆/, /kuˑt(ə̆)/, /kyˑt/ or similar) or Old East Slavic печь /pʲɛtʃʲə/ > Ukrainian піч /pitʃ/ 'oven' (via transitional stages such as /pʲeˑtʃʲə̆/, /pʲiˑtʃʲ/ or similar). This raising and other phonological developments of the time, such as
291-636: A body of national literature, institute a Ukrainian-language educational system, and form an independent state (the Ukrainian People's Republic , shortly joined by the West Ukrainian People's Republic ). During this brief independent statehood the stature and use of Ukrainian greatly improved. In the Russian Empire Census of 1897 the following picture emerged, with Ukrainian being the second most spoken language of
388-443: A counterattack which destroyed a Russian armored column. After the counterattack, Hostomel was subjected to airstrikes and shelling, depriving residents of basic utilities. Russian forces persisted in urban combat with Ukrainian soldiers, and were eventually repulsed from the town's vicinity on 3 March. They invaded Hostomel once more on 4 March, suffering a retreat on the same day, before mounting another assault and recapturing
485-485: A key town between the border and Kyiv. United States Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin revealed that some Russian mechanized infantry units had advanced to within 20 miles (32 km) of Kyiv on the first day of the offensive. In the morning of 25 February, Ukraine's military said its airborne forces were fighting in the settlements of Dymer and Ivankiv, where a large amount of Russian armored vehicles had advanced. The Ukrainian forces destroyed Ivankiv's bridge over
582-457: A military airbase nearby . A large group of Russian paratrooper units were alleged to have landed near Vasylkiv, despite anti-aircraft fire. The units then advanced to the city and were involved in heavy fighting with the Ukrainian 40th Tactical Aviation Brigade , and were repulsed. The city's mayor, Natalia Balasinovich [ uk ] , claimed over 200 Ukrainians were injured during
679-591: A policy of defending Ukraine's interests within the Soviet Union. He proudly promoted the beauty of the Ukrainian language and developed plans to expand the role of Ukrainian in higher education. He was removed, however, after only a brief tenure, for being too lenient on Ukrainian nationalism. The new party boss from 1972 to 1989, Volodymyr Shcherbytsky , purged the local party, was fierce in suppressing dissent, and insisted Russian be spoken at all official functions, even at local levels. His policy of Russification
776-488: A radioactive waste disposal site near Kyiv, albeit the site was unharmed. Another Russian attack group began approaching Kyiv from the northeast after bypassing the city of Chernihiv . Vitali Klitschko , the mayor of Kyiv , told the Associated Press that Kyiv had been "completely encircled". However, his remarks were retracted shortly after. Missile attacks were reported at Brovary on 28 February, but Kyiv
873-565: A result of close Slavic contacts with the remnants of the Scythian and Sarmatian population north of the Black Sea , lasting into the early Middle Ages , the appearance of the voiced fricative γ/г (romanized "h"), in modern Ukrainian and some southern Russian dialects is explained by the assumption that it initially emerged in Scythian and related eastern Iranian dialects, from earlier common Proto-Indo-European *g and *gʰ . During
970-644: A self-aware Ukrainian nation would threaten the unity of the empire. In 1804 Ukrainian as a subject and language of instruction was banned from schools. In 1811, by order of the Russian government, the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was closed. In 1847 the Brotherhood of St Cyril and Methodius was terminated. The same year Taras Shevchenko was arrested, exiled for ten years, and banned for political reasons from writing and painting. In 1862 Pavlo Chubynsky
1067-708: A similar landing at Vasylkiv , near Vasylkiv Air Base south of Kyiv, on 26 February. The attacks were unsuccessful due to several factors, including the disparity in morale and performance between Ukrainian and Russian forces, the Ukrainian use of sophisticated man-portable weapons provided by Western allies, poor Russian logistics and equipment performance, the failure of the Russian Air Force to achieve air superiority, and Russian military attrition during their siege of major cities. As Russian forces advanced towards Kyiv , Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warned that " subversive groups " were approaching
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#17327880152671164-753: A solemn ceremony, a new special unit of the battalion left for eastern Ukraine. According to the press service of the battalion, part of the unit is located in the Donetsk region near Kurakhovo , where it performs tasks to protect the dam of Kurakhiv TPP. The battalion's base camp is located in Sloviansk , where special forces guard peace in the city and maintain law and order. By 2015, the Ministry of Internal Affairs banned people registered in political parties of enlisting in their units. The Sich Battalion cut their official ties with Svoboda and on 21 December 2015,
1261-890: A variant name of the Little Russian language . In a private letter from 1854, Taras Shevchenko lauds "our splendid Ukrainian language". Valuyev's decree from 1863 derides the "Little Russian" language throughout, but also mentions "the so-called Ukrainian language" once. In Galicia, the earliest applications of the term Ukrainian to the language were in the hyphenated names Ukrainian-Ruthenian (1866, by Paulin Święcicki ) or Ruthenian-Ukrainian (1871, by Panteleimon Kulish and Ivan Puluj ), with non-hyphenated Ukrainian language appearing shortly thereafter (in 1878, by Mykhailo Drahomanov ). A following ban on Ukrainian books led to Alexander II 's secret Ems Ukaz , which prohibited publication and importation of most Ukrainian-language books, public performances and lectures, and even banned
1358-646: Is based on the character of contemporary written sources, ultimately reflecting socio-historical developments, and he further subdivides the Middle period into three phases: Ukraine annually marks the Day of Ukrainian Writing and Language on 9 November, the Eastern Orthodox feast day of Nestor the Chronicler . The era of Kievan Rus' ( c. 880–1240) is the subject of some linguistic controversy, as
1455-465: Is composed of around 50 volunteers, some of whom have prior military service. Like other volunteer units, Sich Battalion members underwent two months of basic training prior to activation and began engaging separatist forces with minimal training or equipment. While the Sich Battalion was much smaller than other volunteer units, it was designed for the specific purpose of combating insurgents in
1552-471: Is more mutual intelligibility with Belarusian , and a closer lexical distance to West Slavic Polish and South Slavic Bulgarian . Ukrainian is a descendant of Old East Slavic , a language spoken in the medieval state of Kievan Rus' . In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , the language developed into Ruthenian , where it became an official language, before a process of Polonization began in
1649-856: Is one of the East Slavic languages in the Indo-European languages family, and it is spoken primarily in Ukraine . It is the first (native) language of a large majority of Ukrainians . Written Ukrainian uses the Ukrainian alphabet , a variant of the Cyrillic script . The standard language is studied by the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and Potebnia Institute of Linguistics . Comparisons are often made between Ukrainian and Russian , another East Slavic language, yet there
1746-884: Is referred to as "Old Ukrainian", but elsewhere, and in contemporary sources, is known as the Ruthenian language, and from the end of the 18th century to the present what in Ukraine is known as "Modern Ukrainian", but elsewhere is known as just Ukrainian. Kyiv offensive (2022) 70,000 soldiers, 7,000 vehicles (total) Eastern Ukraine campaign Southern Ukraine campaign Other regions Naval operations Spillover & related incidents Eastern Ukraine campaign Southern Ukraine campaign Other regions Spillover & related incidents Eastern Ukraine campaign Southern Ukraine campaign Other regions Naval operations Spillover & related incidents The northern Ukraine campaign
1843-473: The 11th Guards Air Assault Brigade or 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade for an assault on Antonov Airport nearby. The assault was an attempt to secure the site as an airbridge for Russian transport troops and heavy equipment (such as artillery and tanks ) for an invasion on Kyiv proper. The helicopter group was met by attacks from Ukrainian small arms and MANPADS . The attack eventually downed one to three helicopters, with their pilots ejecting. Despite
1940-641: The 2014 pro-Russian unrest in Ukraine . On August 26, 2014, about 100 soldiers of the battalion took the Oath of Allegiance to the people of Ukraine, after which about 50 soldiers went to the ATO zone . Solemn farewells took place on Instytutska Street in Kyiv , where the heroes of the Heavenly Hundred died in the winter. Together with the soldiers, seven people's deputies of the 7th convocation (2012–2014) from
2037-818: The 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine , the Sich Battalion fought against the Russian Kyiv offensive (2022) . It later redeployed to combat the Eastern Ukraine offensive , participating in the Battle of Kharkiv (2022) . On August 30, 2024, two Colombians were arrested by the FSB after they were extradicted by Caracas for fighting supposedly with the battalion as volunteers while on a layover. They were identified as Alexander Ante and José Aron Medina. Ukrainian language Ukrainian ( українська мова , ukrainska mova , IPA: [ʊkrɐˈjinʲsʲkɐ ˈmɔʋɐ] )
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#17327880152672134-638: The Chechen 141st Motorized Regiment advanced to the nearby town of Hostomel on the same day. Hostomel was defended by elements of the 79th Air Assault Brigade and the 3rd Special Purpose (Spetsnaz) Regiment , along with civilian militias. Members of the Chechen 141st Regiment approached the town and began preparations for the assassination of Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy . After Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles discovered Russian positions near Hostomel, Ukrainian forces regrouped and launched
2231-512: The Kyiv Hydroelectric Power Plant with muddled outcome. Ukrainian forces regrouped and struck a counter-offensive on the power plant the next day, repulsing Russian forces from the site. A separate attack on an army base in the city ended in failure. Russian forces were reported to be 31 kilometres (19 mi) from central-Kyiv. Russian airstrikes were made on Vasylkiv and Kyiv on 27 February, including one on
2328-723: The Latin language. Much of the influence of Poland on the development of the Ukrainian language has been attributed to this period and is reflected in multiple words and constructions used in everyday Ukrainian speech that were taken from Polish or Latin. Examples of Polish words adopted from this period include zavzhdy (always; taken from old Polish word zawżdy ) and obitsiaty (to promise; taken from Polish obiecać ) and from Latin (via Polish) raptom (suddenly) and meta (aim or goal). Significant contact with Tatars and Turks resulted in many Turkic words, particularly those involving military matters and steppe industry, being adopted into
2425-569: The Novgorod Republic did not call themselves Rus ' until the 14th century; earlier Novgorodians reserved the term Rus ' for the Kiev , Pereyaslavl and Chernigov principalities. At the same time as evidenced by contemporary chronicles, the ruling princes and kings of Galicia–Volhynia and Kiev called themselves "people of Rus ' " (in foreign sources called " Ruthenians "), and Galicia–Volhynia has alternately been called
2522-626: The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . By the 18th century, Ruthenian diverged into regional variants, and the modern Ukrainian language developed in the territory of present-day Ukraine. Russification saw the Ukrainian language banned as a subject from schools and as a language of instruction in the Russian Empire , and continued in various ways in the Soviet Union . Even so, the language continued to see use throughout
2619-533: The Svoboda party went to the East: Yuriy Syrotiuk , Oleksiy Kaida , Oleh Osukhovsky , Oleh Gelevey , Oleksandr Myrnyi , Andriy Tyagnybok , and Oleksiy Furman . They took turns accompanying the fighters during their stay in the anti-terrorist operation zone. On September 27, the battalion's fighters returned from the anti-terrorist operation to their place of deployment. On September 30, after
2716-471: The Teteriv River , stopping the advance of the Russian columns . Meanwhile, 80 Russian vehicles were reportedly moving through Dymer and the neighboring village of Katiuzhanka [ uk ] . On the morning of 27 February, a large convoy of Russian vehicles more than 4.8 kilometres (3 miles) long was seen on satellite images on a road near Ivankiv heading towards Kyiv. By 28 February,
2813-533: The Ukrainian 79th Brigade ) was killed near Antonov Airport on 3 March. After Hostomel's occupation, Ukrainian officials accused Russian units of preventing the evacuation of local civilians. Russian soldiers were reported spreading misinformation to residents about the state of war . On 7 March, Yuriy Prylypko , the mayor of Hostomel, was killed by Russian troops. It has been reported that, on 26 February 2022, Russian paratroopers began an assault on Vasylkiv , 40 kilometres (25 mi) south of Kyiv, to capture
2910-399: The law of Ukraine "On protecting the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" was approved by the parliament, formalizing rules governing the usage of the language and introducing penalties for violations. The literary Ukrainian language, which was preceded by Old East Slavic literature, may be subdivided into two stages: during the 12th to 18th centuries what in Ukraine
3007-476: The "Community of Railway Workers", and the "Cyber Partisans". At 8:00 a.m. local time on 24 February 2022, 20 to 34 Russian military helicopters ( Mil Mi-8 transport helicopters escorted by Ka-52 "Alligator" attack helicopters ) flew south from the Belarus–Ukraine border and approached the town of Hostomel . The helicopter group reportedly carried around 300 VDV airborne troops, purportedly from
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3104-425: The 11th–12th century, but started becoming more similar to them around the 13th–15th centuries. The modern Russian language hence developed from the fusion of this Novgorod dialect and the common dialect spoken by the other Kievan Rus', whereas the modern Ukrainian and Belarusian languages developed from dialects which did not differ from each other in a significant way. Ukrainian linguist Stepan Smal-Stotsky denies
3201-456: The 13th century, eastern parts of Rus (including Moscow) came under Tatar rule until their unification under the Tsardom of Muscovy , whereas the south-western areas (including Kyiv ) were incorporated into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . For the following four centuries, the languages of the two regions evolved in relative isolation from each other. Direct written evidence of the existence of
3298-680: The 13th century, when German settlers were invited to Ukraine by the princes of the Kingdom of Ruthenia, German words began to appear in the language spoken in Ukraine. Their influence would continue under Poland not only through German colonists but also through the Yiddish-speaking Jews. Often such words involve trade or handicrafts. Examples of words of German or Yiddish origin spoken in Ukraine include dakh ("roof"), rura ("pipe"), rynok ("market"), kushnir ("furrier"), and majster ("master" or "craftsman"). In
3395-606: The Cossack motherland, Ukrajina , as a self-appellation for the nation of Ukrainians, and Ukrajins'ka mova for the language. Many writers published works in the Romantic tradition of Europe demonstrating that Ukrainian was not merely a language of the village but suitable for literary pursuits. However, in the Russian Empire expressions of Ukrainian culture and especially language were repeatedly persecuted for fear that
3492-549: The Orthodox church spoke Ruthenian. The 1654 Pereiaslav Agreement between Cossack Hetmanate and Alexis of Russia divided Ukraine between the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and the Tsardom of Russia. During the following century, both monarchies became increasingly intolerant of Ukrainian own cultural and political aspirations. Ukrainians found themselves in a colonial situation. The Russian centre adopted
3589-574: The Polish nobility. Many Ukrainian nobles learned the Polish language and converted to Catholicism during that period in order to maintain their lofty aristocratic position. Lower classes were less affected because literacy was common only in the upper class and clergy. The latter were also under significant Polish pressure after the Union with the Catholic Church . Most of the educational system
3686-542: The Principality or Kingdom of Ruthenia. Also according to Andrey Zaliznyak, the Novgorodian dialect differed significantly from that of other dialects of Kievan Rus during the 11th–12th century, but started becoming more similar to them around 13th–15th centuries. The modern Russian language hence developed from the fusion of this Novgorodian dialect and the common dialect spoken by the other Kievan Rus, whereas
3783-557: The Russian Empire. According to the Imperial census's terminology, the Russian language ( Русскій ) was subdivided into Ukrainian (Малорусскій, ' Little Russian '), what is known as Russian today (Великорусскій, ' Great Russian '), and Belarusian (Бѣлорусскій, 'White Russian'). The following table shows the distribution of settlement by native language ( "по родному языку" ) in 1897 in Russian Empire governorates ( guberniyas ) that had more than 100,000 Ukrainian speakers. Although in
3880-521: The Sich Battalion was reformed into the 4th Company "Sich" of the Kyiv Regiment, as part of the Kyiv city special police , with Maxim Morozov as its commander. Arsen Avakov , the head of Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs, said that a member of the Sich Battalion was arrested after a member of the National Guard of Ukraine was killed during rioting in Kyiv on August 31, 2015. At the start of
3977-460: The Soviet Union and a special term, "a language of inter-ethnic communication", was coined to denote its status. After the death of Stalin (1953), a general policy of relaxing the language policies of the past was implemented (1958 to 1963). The Khrushchev era which followed saw a policy of relatively lenient concessions to development of the languages at the local and republic level, though its results in Ukraine did not go nearly as far as those of
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4074-519: The Soviet policy of Ukrainianization in the 1920s. Journals and encyclopedic publications advanced in the Ukrainian language during the Khrushchev era, as well as transfer of Crimea under Ukrainian SSR jurisdiction. Yet, the 1958 school reform that allowed parents to choose the language of primary instruction for their children, unpopular among the circles of the national intelligentsia in parts of
4171-551: The USSR, meant that non-Russian languages would slowly give way to Russian in light of the pressures of survival and advancement. The gains of the past, already largely reversed by the Stalin era, were offset by the liberal attitude towards the requirement to study the local languages (the requirement to study Russian remained). Parents were usually free to choose the language of study of their children (except in few areas where attending
4268-564: The Ukrainian language dates to the late 16th century. By the 16th century, a peculiar official language formed: a mixture of the liturgical standardised language of Old Church Slavonic , Ruthenian and Polish . The influence of the latter gradually increased relative to the former two, as the nobility and rural large-landowning class, known as the szlachta , was largely Polish-speaking. Documents soon took on many Polish characteristics superimposed on Ruthenian phonetics. Polish–Lithuanian rule and education also involved significant exposure to
4365-477: The Ukrainian language held the formal position of the principal local language in the Ukrainian SSR . However, practice was often a different story: Ukrainian always had to compete with Russian, and the attitudes of the Soviet leadership towards Ukrainian varied from encouragement and tolerance to de facto banishment. Officially, there was no state language in the Soviet Union until the very end when it
4462-465: The Ukrainian language. Examples include torba (bag) and tyutyun (tobacco). Because of the substantial number of loanwords from Polish, German, Czech and Latin, early modern vernacular Ukrainian ( prosta mova , " simple speech ") had more lexical similarity with West Slavic languages than with Russian or Church Slavonic. By the mid-17th century, the linguistic divergence between the Ukrainian and Russian languages had become so significant that there
4559-409: The Ukrainian school might have required a long daily commute) and they often chose Russian, which reinforced the resulting Russification. In this sense, some analysts argue that it was not the "oppression" or "persecution", but rather the lack of protection against the expansion of Russian language that contributed to the relative decline of Ukrainian in the 1970s and 1980s. According to this view, it
4656-480: The advance, and destroyed a bridge linking Bucha and Irpin. According to the mayor of Irpin , Oleksandr Markushin, Russian forces were trapped and destroyed. Ukrainian forces engaged and destroyed an armored column on 28 February. Irpin was struck by missiles on 2 March. Russian forces attacked a Ukrainian checkpoint in Yasnohorodka on 6 March. Markushin had refused requests by Russian forces to surrender
4753-547: The advancing Russian convoy would arrive at Kyiv in at least two days. On 4 March, an armored Russian column from the Sumy Oblast reportedly reached near Brovary. Clashes remained throughout the Kyiv Oblast by 8 March. Russian forces advanced on the highway between Zhytomyr and Kyiv , threatening Fastiv . Russian tanks reached within a few kilometres from Kyiv on 9 March, but were attacked by Ukrainian forces during
4850-576: The airport, hampering Russian efforts. The Ukrainian 4th Rapid Reaction Brigade , in a decisive counterattack, prevented the transport aircraft from landing at the airport, forcing it to return to Russia, and preventing further reinforcements. With air support from the Ukrainian Air Force , Ukrainian units managed to repel the airborne assault. Russian forces also attempted landings at the Kyiv Cistern . A renewed airborne assault
4947-540: The attacks, the airport was ultimately captured on 25 February as the significantly outnumbered and outgunned members of the Ukrainian National Guard withdrew. After the capture of the airport, Russian troops began to prepare for the arrival of 18 Ilyushin Il-76 transport aircraft with reinforcements for the assault. However, local militias and troops from the 3rd Special Purpose Regiment attacked
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#17327880152675044-407: The chancellery and gradually evolved into the Ruthenian language. Polish rule, which came later, was accompanied by a more assimilationist policy. By the 1569 Union of Lublin that formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, a significant part of Ukrainian territory was moved from Lithuanian rule to Polish administration, resulting in cultural Polonization and visible attempts to colonize Ukraine by
5141-776: The city. The Ukrainians also claimed that at the beginning of the invasion, just 30 SOF soldiers managed to halt the Russian attack. The Ukrainians ambushed the Russian convoy, guarded by some 2,000 troops, and destroyed three lead vehicles, attacked the rest of the convoy, destroying the bridges in the process. This engagement ended up temporarily stalling the entire Russian advance from Belarus, which consisted of 70,000 soldiers and 7,000 vehicles. Wagner Group mercenaries and Chechen forces reportedly made several attempts to assassinate Zelenskyy . The Ukrainian government said these efforts were thwarted by anti-war officials in Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB), who shared intelligence of
5238-526: The convoy had grown to around 64 kilometres (40 miles) long. The Russian advance was greatly hindered by logistical difficulties, partially caused by the Belarusian opposition , as dissident railway workers, hackers and security forces disrupted railway lines in Belarus. This operation, known as the 2022 rail war in Belarus , was mainly organized by individuals and three larger networks known as "Bypol",
5335-591: The country, and remained particularly strong in Western Ukraine . Specific developments that led to a gradual change of the Old East Slavic vowel system into the system found in modern Ukrainian began approximately in the 12th/13th century (that is, still at the time of the Kievan Rus') with a lengthening and raising of the Old East Slavic mid vowels e and o when followed by a consonant and
5432-564: The eastern at Sumy. These were likely intended to encircle Kyiv from the northeast and east. The attack force reached the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone and captured the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant and the ghost city of Pripyat . Russian vehicles had also broke through the border checkpoint at Vilcha by noon. Following their breakthrough at Chernobyl, Russian forces were held at Ivankiv,
5529-407: The existence of a common Old East Slavic language at any time in the past. Similar points of view were shared by Yevhen Tymchenko , Vsevolod Hantsov , Olena Kurylo , Ivan Ohienko and others. According to this theory, the dialects of East Slavic tribes evolved gradually from the common Proto-Slavic language without any intermediate stages during the 6th through 9th centuries. The Ukrainian language
5626-418: The fight. The New York Times cited reports by unnamed Ukrainian officials, that at least part of the attackers were sleeper agents who had bought apartments in the city the month before the invasion. Claims have been made that Ukrainian aircraft shot down two Russian Ilyushin Il-76 aircraft transporting assault troops. However, The Guardian reports "no convincing public evidence has surfaced about
5723-545: The headquarters of the Armed Forces of Ukraine . Russian forces initially captured several towns and cities, but logistical and supply failures, stiff Ukrainian resistance, and subsequent poor morale caused the advance to stall. With heavy losses and the inability to make further progress, Russia withdrew its forces from Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Chernihiv and Sumy Oblasts in April 2022, and Ukrainian forces retook control. On
5820-417: The language of much of the literature was purely or heavily Old Church Slavonic . Some theorists see an early Ukrainian stage in language development here, calling it Old Ruthenian; others term this era Old East Slavic . Russian theorists tend to amalgamate Rus' to the modern nation of Russia, and call this linguistic era Old Russian. However, according to Russian linguist Andrey Zaliznyak (2012), people from
5917-524: The main invasion command, a convoy of special police units OMON and SOBR from the Kemerovo Oblast accidentally separated from the invasion forces and ended up charging and spearheading the attack at Kyiv by themselves. The convoy was spotted by local transit CCTV cameras and were ambushed by local Ukrainian forces using anti-tank missiles and mortars at a bridge over the Irpin River , and
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#17327880152676014-542: The merger of the Old East Slavic vowel phonemes и /i/ and ы /ɨ/ into the specifically Ukrainian phoneme /ɪ ~ e/, spelled with и (in the 13th/14th centuries), and the fricativisation of the Old East Slavic consonant г /g/, probably first to /ɣ/ (in the 13th century), with /ɦ/ as a reflex in Modern Ukrainian, did not happen in Russian. Only the fricativisation of Old East Slavic г /g/ occurred in Belarusian, where
6111-462: The modern Ukrainian and Belarusian languages developed from the dialects which did not differ from each other in a significant way. After the fall of the Kingdom of Ruthenia, Ukrainians mainly fell under the rule of Lithuania and then Poland . Local autonomy of both rule and language was a marked feature of Lithuanian rule. In the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Old East Slavic became the language of
6208-521: The morning of 24 February 2022, Russia initiated attacks on Kyiv Oblast with artillery and missile strikes on several primary targets, including Boryspil International Airport , Kyiv's primary airport. Russia apparently intended to rapidly seize Kyiv, with Spetsnaz infiltrating the city, supported by airborne operations and a rapid mechanised advance from the north. Russian Airborne Forces attempted to seize two key airfields near Kyiv, launching an airborne assault on Antonov Airport , followed by
6305-508: The name Little Russia for Ukraine and Little Russian for the language, an expression that originated in Byzantine Greek and may originally have meant "old, original, fundamental Russia", and had been in use since the 14th century. Ukrainian high culture went into a long period of steady decline. The Kyiv-Mohyla Academy was taken over by the Russian Empire. Most of the remaining Ukrainian schools also switched to Polish or Russian in
6402-412: The native language for the majority in the nation on the eve of Ukrainian independence, a significant share of ethnic Ukrainians were russified. In Donetsk there were no Ukrainian language schools and in Kyiv only a quarter of children went to Ukrainian language schools. The Russian language was the dominant vehicle, not just of government function, but of the media, commerce, and modernity itself. This
6499-565: The night. On 10 March, Ukrainian forces claimed that the Azov Special Operations Detachment and the 72nd Mechanized Brigade ambushed the 6th Tank Regiment and 239th Tank Regiments of the 90th Guards Tank Division in Brovary , inflicting heavy losses, including killing the 6th Tank Regiment's commander, Colonel Andrei Zakharo, forcing them to retreat. On 25 February, due a lack of communications with
6596-411: The plans. Russian forces trying to capture Kyiv sent a probative spearhead on 24 February south from Belarus along the west bank of the Dnieper River , apparently to encircle the city from the west, but it pulled back by 7 April to resupply and redeploy to the southeastern front. It was supported by two separate axes of attack from Russia along the east bank of the Dnieper: the western at Chernihiv, and
6693-425: The population said Ukrainian was their native language. Until the 1920s the urban population in Ukraine grew faster than the number of Ukrainian speakers. This implies that there was a (relative) decline in the use of Ukrainian language. For example, in Kyiv, the number of people stating that Ukrainian was their native language declined from 30.3% in 1874 to 16.6% in 1917. During the seven-decade-long Soviet era ,
6790-456: The present-day reflex is /ɣ/. Ahatanhel Krymsky and Aleksey Shakhmatov assumed the existence of the common spoken language of Eastern Slavs only in prehistoric times. According to their point of view, the diversification of the Old East Slavic language took place in the 8th or early 9th century. Russian linguist Andrey Zaliznyak stated that the Old Novgorod dialect differed significantly from that of other dialects of Kievan Rus' during
6887-418: The printing of Ukrainian texts accompanying musical scores. A period of leniency after 1905 was followed by another strict ban in 1914, which also affected Russian-occupied Galicia. For much of the 19th century the Austrian authorities demonstrated some preference for Polish culture, but the Ukrainians were relatively free to partake in their own cultural pursuits in Halychyna and Bukovina , where Ukrainian
6984-577: The rural regions of the Ukrainian provinces, 80% of the inhabitants said that Ukrainian was their native language in the Census of 1897 (for which the results are given above), in the urban regions only 32.5% of the population claimed Ukrainian as their native language. For example, in Odesa (then part of the Russian Empire), at the time the largest city in the territory of current Ukraine, only 5.6% of
7081-687: The sixteenth and first half of the 17th century, when Ukraine was part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, albeit in spite of being part of the PLC, not as a result. Among many schools established in that time, the Kyiv-Mohyla Collegium (the predecessor of the modern Kyiv-Mohyla Academy ), founded by the Orthodox Metropolitan Peter Mogila , was the most important. At that time languages were associated more with religions: Catholics spoke Polish, and members of
7178-462: The term native language may not necessarily associate with the language they use more frequently. The overwhelming majority of ethnic Ukrainians consider the Ukrainian language native , including those who often speak Russian. According to the official 2001 census data, 92.3% of Kyiv region population responded "Ukrainian" to the native language ( ridna mova ) census question, compared with 88.4% in 1989, and 7.2% responded "Russian". In 2019,
7275-558: The territories controlled by these respective countries, which was followed by a new wave of Polonization and Russification of the native nobility. Gradually the official language of Ukrainian provinces under Poland was changed to Polish, while the upper classes in the Russian part of Ukraine used Russian. During the 19th century, a revival of Ukrainian self-identification manifested in the literary classes of both Russian-Empire Dnieper Ukraine and Austrian Galicia . The Brotherhood of Sts Cyril and Methodius in Kyiv applied an old word for
7372-473: The town on 5 March. Both sides suffered heavy losses during the battle: Russian forces lost over 21 light infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) in two days; Ukrainian intelligence claimed the 31st Guards recorded over 50 deaths. Russian commanders were also killed in action , including Major general Andrei Sukhovetsky (deputy commander of the Russian 41st Army) killed by a Ukrainian sniper on 28 February. Major Valeriy Chybineyev (sniper commander of
7469-537: The town. At the onset of the Russian invasion, Major General Viktor Nikoliuk , head of the Ukrainian Operational Command North , ordered the 1st Tank Brigade to defend Chernihiv , and sent the 58th Motorized Brigade to Baturyn and Hlukhiv in order to stop the Russian advance on the major highway there. The 1st Brigade failed to reach a planned defensive line at Ripky and Horodnia on time, though it still managed to stall
7566-503: The two downed planes, or about a drop of paratroopers in Vasylkiv". Ukrainian territorial defense units have not found any evidence of wrecked planes in the surrounding area. In the early morning of 27 February, a Russian missile struck an oil depot in Vasylkiv, setting it ablaze. On 12 March, a Russian rocket attack destroyed the air base. On 25 February, Russian fighter aircraft began bombarding central Kyiv. A Ukrainian Su-27
7663-582: The unarmored and under-equipped units were completely destroyed. Reportedly, of the 80 soldiers in the convoy, only 3 survived. Fighting neared Bucha on 27 February, as the 36th Combined Arms Army and Russian special police forces approached the city. Russian artillery began bombarding the city at the same time, causing several civilian casualties, reportedly also wounding the mayor of Bucha, Anatoliy Fedoruk . As fighting developed, Russian breakthroughs allowed units to advance to Irpin . Ukrainian forces used artillery to shell Russian convoys to halt
7760-516: The use of Ukrainian. The educational system in Ukraine has been transformed over the first decade of independence from a system that is partly Ukrainian to one that is overwhelmingly so. The government has also mandated a progressively increased role for Ukrainian in the media and commerce. In the 2001 census , 67.5% of the country's population named Ukrainian as their native language (a 2.8% increase from 1989), while 29.6% named Russian (a 3.2% decrease). For many Ukrainians (of various ethnic origins),
7857-536: Was a theater of operation in the Russian invasion of Ukraine . It involved attacks by Russia across the Russo-Ukrainian and Belarusian–Ukrainian borders , beginning on 24 February 2022, for control of Kyiv , the capital of Ukraine , and the surrounding areas of Kyiv Oblast and northern regions Zhytomyr Oblast , Sumy Oblast , and Chernihiv Oblast . Kyiv is the seat of the Ukrainian government and
7954-587: Was a need for translators during negotiations for the Treaty of Pereyaslav , between Bohdan Khmelnytsky , head of the Zaporozhian Host , and the Russian state. By the 18th century, Ruthenian had diverged into regional variants, developing into the modern Belarusian , Rusyn , and Ukrainian languages. The accepted chronology of Ukrainian divides the language into Old Ukrainian, Middle Ukrainian, and Modern Ukrainian. Shevelov explains that much of this
8051-413: Was destroyed in its storage hangar. The Russian government claimed nearly 200 Ukrainian deaths in the assault with no losses of its own. However, according to both Western and Ukrainian sources, an estimated 300 Russian paratroopers were killed during the battle. After securing a breakthrough at Ivankiv on 25 February, troops from the 41st Combined Arms Army , 31st Guards Air Assault Brigade , and
8148-556: Was exiled for seven years to Arkhangelsk . The Ukrainian magazine Osnova was discontinued. In 1863, the tsarist interior minister Pyotr Valuyev proclaimed in his decree that "there never has been, is not, and never can be a separate Little Russian language". Although the name of Ukraine is known since 1187, it was not applied to the language until the mid-19th century. The linguonym Ukrainian language appears in Yakub Holovatsky 's book from 1849, listed there as
8245-448: Was formed by convergence of tribal dialects, mostly due to an intensive migration of the population within the territory of today's Ukraine in later historical periods. This point of view was also supported by George Shevelov 's phonological studies, which argue that specific features were already recognizable in the southern dialects of Old East Slavic (seen as ancestors to Ukrainian) as far back as these varieties can be documented. As
8342-620: Was formed by the far-right Svoboda party in June 2014. The unit is one of several Ukrainian paramilitary volunteer battalions formed at the start of the war in Donbas in 2014, along with the Svyatyi Mykolai Battalion or Donbas Battalion , to fight against pro-Russian separatists in the Donbas region of eastern Ukraine. The Sich Battalion officially became an active unit of Ukraine's Ministry of Internal Affairs following its oath taking ceremony on 26 August 2014, and
8439-407: Was gradually Polonized. In Ruthenia, the language of administrative documents gradually shifted towards Polish. Polish has had heavy influences on Ukrainian (particularly in Western Ukraine ). The southwestern Ukrainian dialects are transitional to Polish. As the Ukrainian language developed further, some borrowings from Tatar and Turkish occurred. Ukrainian culture and language flourished in
8536-514: Was heard in several wards of the city. Zelenskyy urged residents to engage in urban guerrilla warfare with Molotov cocktails against Russian forces. Guns were distributed to civilian militias. The Ukrainian government imposed a curfew on the city the next morning. Ukrainian forces claimed to have killed around 60 Russian saboteurs in a single day. Simultaneously with the failed assault on Vasylkiv, Russian units began bombarding Kyiv on 26 February with artillery and organized attacks to capture
8633-562: Was inevitable that successful careers required a good command of Russian, while knowledge of Ukrainian was not vital, so it was common for Ukrainian parents to send their children to Russian-language schools, even though Ukrainian-language schools were usually available. The number of students in Russian-language in Ukraine schools was constantly increasing, from 14 percent in 1939 to more than 30 percent in 1962. The Communist Party leader from 1963 to 1972, Petro Shelest , pursued
8730-467: Was launched a day after the initial attack. With Russian mechanized units achieving breakthroughs at nearby Ivankiv , they were able to advance and capture the airport after a combined ground-based assault. Despite their success, the airport was deemed inoperable, ending chances for a swift Ukrainian capitulation via the capture of Kyiv. During the clash at Antonov Airport, the only existing Antonov An-225 Mriya (the world's largest operational aircraft)
8827-490: Was lessened only slightly after 1985. The management of dissent by the local Ukrainian Communist Party was more fierce and thorough than in other parts of the Soviet Union. As a result, at the start of the Mikhail Gorbachev reforms perebudova and hlasnist’ (Ukrainian for perestroika and glasnost ), Ukraine under Shcherbytsky was slower to liberalize than Russia itself. Although Ukrainian still remained
8924-549: Was proclaimed in 1990 that Russian language was the all-Union state language and that the constituent republics had rights to declare additional state languages within their jurisdictions. Still it was implicitly understood in the hopes of minority nations that Ukrainian would be used in the Ukrainian SSR, Uzbek would be used in the Uzbek SSR , and so on. However, Russian was used as the lingua franca in all parts of
9021-554: Was recaptured on 3 March. Ukrainian reports from Kyiv believed the Russian army had begun to surround the city with tanks from Belarus, in an attempt to enforce a blockade. In early March 2022, the Ukrainians claimed the destruction of 120 tanks in one day, reportedly "when Russian tank columns stalled on roads to Kyiv, got hit with massed artillery barrages and modern anti-tank missiles dropped by plane-sized drones or fired by infantry teams." Estonian intelligence estimated that
9118-586: Was relatively free from direct combat. Ukrainian forces claimed the destruction of a Russian column in Makariv , where fighting had erupted one day earlier. Russian strikes continued in early March. The Kyiv TV Tower was hit on 1 March. Strikes were later reported at Rusanivka , Kurenivka , Boiarka , Vyshneve , Vorzel and Markhalivka . while Borodianka was extensively bombed , killing hundreds. The Ukrainian Air Force claimed it had downed two Russian Sukhoi Su-35 over Kyiv on 2 March. Makariv
9215-400: Was substantially less the case for western Ukraine, which escaped the artificial famine , Great Purge , and most of Stalinism . And this region became the center of a hearty, if only partial, renaissance of the Ukrainian language during independence. Since 1991, Ukrainian has been the official state language in Ukraine, and the state administration implemented government policies to broaden
9312-505: Was then shot down. Russian saboteurs dressed as Ukrainian soldiers attempted to infiltrate Obolon , a suburb north of central Kyiv, just 10 kilometres (6.2 miles) from the Verkhovna Rada building (the seat of the Ukrainian parliament), but were all captured or killed by Ukrainian troops. Army reserves were then activated to defend Kyiv. Gunfire, described by Ukrainian officials as clashes between Ukrainian and Russian troops,
9409-547: Was widely used in education and official documents. The suppression by Russia hampered the literary development of the Ukrainian language in Dnipro Ukraine, but there was a constant exchange with Halychyna, and many works were published under Austria and smuggled to the east. By the time of the Russian Revolution of 1917 and the collapse of Austro-Hungary in 1918, Ukrainians were ready to openly develop
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