Round Table on Children’s Language Rights

The language issue remains highly relevant in Ukraine. Centuries of Russification have left lasting consequences, and the war launched by Russia has brought the situation to a critical point. For International Children’s Day, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, together with the National News Agency of Ukraine Ukrinform organized a Round Table to discuss challenges and mechanisms of protecting children’s language rights.

See also: Ukrainian — the Language of the Strong

Representatives of the Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Youth and Sports, The State Service for Children’s Affairs, other government bodies, as well as members of various movements and public organizations took part in the event. Among them were Andrii Kovaliov from Spilnomova, Larysa Nitsoi from Ukrainskyi Prostir, Anastasia Rozlutska from Ukrainskyi Svit, Taras Marusyk from Toloka, Taras Shamaida from Prostir Svobody, and Dmytro Holovchenko from SBT Localization. Participants shared various statistical data on the use of Ukrainian language, raised questions concerning language problems among children and adolescents, proposed and discussed solutions.

Dmytro Holovchenko’s speech begins at 2:46:18.

OUR STATEMENT

The Gaming Component as a Part of Entertainment

Firstly, I would like to highlight that almost none of today’s speakers mentioned the gaming component, even though it is extremely important — not only for children and teenagers but also for adults, since they all play computer or mobile games in one way or another.

Today, the share of Ukrainian-language gaming content is incredibly small. The concern is that, unlike other forms of entertainment — books, music, films — it is not possible to properly regulate the presence of Ukrainian language or the absence of Russian, for example, in games. As a result, we have a legal framework that states that Russian-language books cannot be imported; that there must be Ukrainian-language quotas on radio… movies are either dubbed or shown in the original language but not in Russian. However, this does not work for games. Publishers offer a product that already includes several languages by default. If the game lacks Ukrainian but has Russian, the risk that the end user, a child, will choose Russian is, unfortunately, extremely high.

What the Statistics Show

For example, take statistics on the well-known game Cyberpunk 2077. Representatives of the developer once reported that before the game received Ukrainian localization, 88% of users from Ukraine played with the available Russian text and voiceover. Another 5% used Russian subtitles with English audio. And only 7% used English — either because they didn’t want to use Russian on principle or for greater immersion, but that issue is a secondary one.

However, looking at data from two weeks after the release of the Ukrainian localization, the situation improved but still remained far from ideal: English usage stayed at 7%, but only 42% switched to Ukrainian. Meanwhile, 46–48% continued using Russian. We must, of course, account for the fact that the Ukrainian version included only text and no voiceover, whereas the Russian version featured fully voice acting.

This is a major issue because most large, popular games — the ones everyone talks about — will be played by both children and adults regardless of whether Ukrainian is available. And if given the opportunity, the player who doesn’t know English will almost certainly choose Russian simply because they want to understand the plot and context.

This then carries over into informal communication: if someone doesn’t know how to translate something from English, they will use the term they encountered in the game. And if a group of friends plays a game, they will obviously use the terminology they have picked up from the voiceover, subtitles etc. The same applies to volunteer initiatives, such as creating fan sites: as a user, I will search for information using the terms I learned from the localization I played with.

Language Gap and Its Consequences

At the time when our cinemas were full of Ukrainian dubbing — which we consider to be the high point of our creative culture — the number of games with official Ukrainian localization could be counted on the fingers of one hand, aside from fan-made patches known only to a handful of people.

Thus, we can say that a huge cultural layer — since any large game brings with it books, board games, comics, and so on — exists in isolation.

We have often encountered such examples as a localization organization. For instance, when translating a cookbook based on a game that lacks Ukrainian localization, we adapt terminology according to Ukrainian language norms, and people ask, “Why not translate it like this?” Usually, such questions arise because they played the game in Russian, where the term was translated differently — and now they expect exactly that version.

People also want the same approach to proper names. For example, there is a game character named Horus. This is a Latinized form, and in Ukrainian we typically remove the -us ending (e.g., Julius — Юлій). Yet people ask, “Why not Горус?” Because in Russian, it’s Горус. They are used to it, even though this world existed long before the book or game was translated.

People have expectations. However, we cannot blame them for consuming the fictional worlds they love in whatever language they could understand — whether fully or partially, whether native or not — because they don’t know English for various reasons. There is nothing we can do about that.

Approaches to Regulation

We currently have no legal tools to require developers to add Ukrainian language. What can we do? Ban sales in Ukraine because there is no Ukrainian localization? Then they simply will not sell them here. This will only lead to people pirating games and playing them in English, Russian, Polish, etc. Therefore, as the Ukrainian gaming community, lawmakers, and officials, we should think about how to encourage developers and publishers to include Ukrainian.

Unlike music, books, and movies, where we have certain regulatory frameworks, we have nothing like that in the gaming world.

One might say “They are foreigners, that is how they think, they just don’t get it.” But if we look back 10 years, we will see that many Ukrainian developers also did not include Ukrainian at launch. Their games came out in English, Russian, and other languages. Ukrainian appeared much later. After almost everyone had already finished the game and many not willing to return to it.

What is the solution? One might suggest throwing money at the problem, offering tax incentives, hiring a few state localizers who will do it for a state salary. But this will not bring lasting success. It won’t solve things systemically.

What we need instead is educational outreach, similar to what existing state platforms already do in other fields. For example, United24 does an excellent job on informing foreigners about issues in its area. Before the full-scale invasion, there was the great initiative Ukraine WOW which introduced foreigners to many amazing aspects of Ukraine; I believe this initiative still exists, though it has become less active.

We must communicate to developers that Ukraine is a large market, a place with significant earning potential.

Based on the developers we have worked with, they generally express positive impressions of the revenue generated in Ukraine compared to the resources invested.

But for many the logic remains: “Why bother if Russian is available and everyone understands it?” Because, as I mentioned, 88% of Ukrainian players according to Cyberpunk 2077 data were comfortably using Russian localization. And I believe this data also reflects averages across other games. Perhaps things shifted significantly after 2022, but we still cannot say that people will avoid Russian translation if Ukrainian is absent.

This is a huge issue because, returning to children, they later discuss game dialogue or other elements during school breaks.

We find ourselves in a vicious circle when we want to build Ukrainian-language cultural space, but with no room for games, because school is still compulsory for most children while entertainment is something they chose freely.

And I will say — and many of my colleagues in the translation field would agree — that without proper attention to game worlds, without ensuring that the largest gaming universes are available in Ukrainian (at least through text), we are losing far too much. As one of the previous speakers noted, language defines even how we approach translation. From a professional point of view, Ukrainian and Russian translations are fundamentally different in their approach to terminology, adaptation, transliteration, and many other aspects.

We thank the organizers of the round table for the invitation and the opportunity to contribute to the discussion on the linguistic situation.

November 23, 2025

Translated by Oleksandr Kyrylov