False information is circulating on social media claiming that parents in Odesa schools are allegedly being fined because their children speak Russian during school breaks. Analysts from VoxCheck drew attention to these claims.

These allegations are untrue. No fines or penalties have been introduced in Ukraine for the use of the Russian language in informal communication among schoolchildren, including during breaks.

The Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language” does not regulate private communication and therefore imposes no restrictions on the language children use outside the educational process. No such provisions exist in any other currently applicable legal acts.

On 11 March 2025, Draft Law No. 13072 concerning language use in the educational process was submitted to the Verkhovna Rada. The document provides for the responsibility of school administrators and teachers to maintain a Ukrainian-language environment, but it contains no provisions regarding fines or financial penalties for students or their parents.

Moreover, as of the end of 2025, the draft law had not been adopted and had not even undergone a first reading, remaining only at the preliminary stage of parliamentary consideration.

Such claims are designed to portray Ukraine as a “repressive” or “authoritarian” state that allegedly punishes children and families for the language they speak. This directly reinforces the Russian narrative about the supposed “violation of the rights of Russian speakers”.