Ukraine allows lowercase “Russia” in informal writing

Ukraine’s language commission permitted the lowercase spelling of “Russia,” “Moscow,” “Muscovy,” “State Duma of the Russian Federation,” and similar words in unofficial texts.

byMaria Tril

22/09/2023

1 minute read

Children are in the metro station while Russian missile attack on the city of Kyiv. Photo: Konstyantyn Liberov

Ukraine allows lowercase “Russia” in informal writing

The National Commission on State Language Standards in Ukraine allowed the lowercase spelling of “Russia,” “Moscow,” and related words in unofficial texts.

According to the statement, spelling the names “Russian Federation,” “Russia,” “Moscow,” “Muscovy,” “State Duma of the Russian Federation,” etc, with a lowercase letter in informal texts will not be considered incorrect.

The experts made this decision after considering official letters from the Institute of the Ukrainian Language and the Potebnya Institute of Linguistics.

The Commission made the decision, taking into account the appeals in social media of the Minister for Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories, Iryna Vereshchuk. Earlier, Vereshchuk called on the National Commission to formalize the lowercase spelling of “Russia” and similar words.

Meanwhile, Minister of Education Oksen Lisovyi said the state’s name, “Russian Federation,” should be capitalized in official documents.

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