Publishing house repeatedly pays fines for printing Russian-language crossword puzzles - language ombudswoman

Olena Ivanovska, Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, says that for some businesses, the benefits of violating language legislation outweigh meager fines.

"There is a publishing house that systematically violates language legislation when, for example, a crossword puzzle is printed in Russian. This is probably the fifth or sixth round when we are constantly raising the fine. The publishing house constantly pays these fines, but continues to print again, because the benefits from sales, which means there is a demand, outweigh the meager fines provided for by the Administrative Code," Ivanovska said in an interview with the YouTube project "Nobody Will Watch This."

As reported, in mid-December 2025, the Language Ombudsman addressed the Cabinet of Ministers with a proposal to initiate an increase in administrative fines for violating the Law of Ukraine "On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language" by amending the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses. According to her, symbolic fines are not commensurate with the economic benefit that individual business entities receive, systematically ignoring the requirements of the law, and therefore do not motivate them to voluntarily comply with language norms.

In August 2025, in an interview with the Interfax-Ukraine agency, Ivanovska stated that at that time it was not necessary to strengthen sanctions and increase fines for violations of language legislation.

Today, a fine of UAH 3,400 to UAH 8,500 is provided for the first violation of the law "On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language," and for a second violation – from UAH 8,500 to UAH 11,900.