Author: Margarita Nikolova
On March 30, 2026, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Bulgaria and the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine signed a protocol in Kiev on the functioning of the Bolgrad High School “G. S. Rakovski“. At its core, it aims to support Bulgarian language education in one of the oldest schools of the Bulgarian community outside our country.
The Bulgarian delegation led by the then acting Prime Minister Andrey Gyurov caused a wave of disinformation in Bulgaria with this action. The familiar voices were heard again in the public sphere, claiming that Ukraine had restricted the study of the Bulgarian language in Ukrainian schools by law. What are the facts:
The Bulgarian language in Ukraine today
“The new protocol only updates the legal basis for cooperation between our two countries (...) It is enough to read the text (...) to understand how open Ukraine is in terms of guaranteeing opportunities for studying the Bulgarian language, history and culture”, H.E. Olesya Ilashchuk, Ambassador of Ukraine to Bulgaria, told DV.
According to educational experts, the first information about teaching the Bulgarian language in Ukraine - and more precisely in the Odessa and Zaporozhye regions - dates back to the time shortly before the collapse of the Soviet Union. “During the Soviet period, the Bulgarian language was subjected to systematic restrictions. It was pushed out, silenced, and the Russian language was imposed as the only possible one”, Tatyana Savova, director of the high school in the village of Preslav, tells DV. “But even then, the Bulgarian community in our village preserved its identity - in songs, in family memory, in the stubborn desire to speak their native language. And when freedom came in the 1990s, a real interest in their roots erupted among people.”
According to official data from the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, to date, more than 8,000 students - not only of Bulgarian origin - are studying Bulgarian in 53 state schools. “Teaching Bulgarian is fully financed by the Ukrainian state budget, as well as the printing of textbooks and the holding of regional, district and national Bulgarian language Olympiads in Ukraine”, shares Ukrainian Ambassador Olesya Ilashchuk. In several Ukrainian universities, the language is also studied as a philological specialty.
The role of cultural centers and Sunday schools
According to information from Assoc. Prof. Dr. Olena Chmir - a Bulgarian scholar, lecturer at the Department of “Slavic Philology“ of the “Taras Shevchenko“ Kyiv National University - the number of Bulgarian cultural centers and societies in Ukraine exceeds 50. “Many of them have Sunday schools where Bulgarian language, Bulgarian literature, history and geography of Bulgaria are taught”, adds Assoc. Prof. Dr. Chmir.
One of the many examples is the cultural and educational center “John Atanasov” in the village of Preslav - a branch of the Primorsky District Bulgarian Cultural and Educational Society “Sdruzhenie”. As a result of its good cooperation with the local high school, the children develop their talents in dance and vocal ensembles and immerse themselves in Bulgarian culture through various events almost every month.
“This partnership is vital because the center also functions as a Sunday school, where not only children, but also prospective students for Bulgarian universities and adult residents of the village find an environment for developing their identity”, says the director of the high school in the village.
The Education Law of Ukraine of 2017
In 2017, Ukraine adopted amendments to its education law, which introduced new rules for teaching the languages of national minorities after the primary education stage. “The main goal of the amendments is to strengthen the role of Ukrainian as the state language in education. After the primary stage, most subjects begin to be taught in Ukrainian, but the mother tongue, including Bulgarian, continues to be studied as a separate subject”, journalist Kristian Yulzari told DW.
The law also gives privileged status to English and other official languages of the European Union countries. “At the same time, for the Bulgarian language, as an official language of the EU, the law provides for maximum flexible conditions for teaching and studying. The final choice of the form of teaching in the language of the national minority depends on the decisions of the local authorities, the educational institution and the parents themselves”, explains the Ukrainian ambassador to Bulgaria.
How facts give way to suggestions
As a journalist at Factcheck.bg, Kristian Yulzari deals with fact-checking and tracking down disinformation on a daily basis. He told DW that the allegations about the ban on the Bulgarian language in Ukraine can be traced back to the adoption of amendments to the education law in 2017. “This is an old narrative that was recycled this year in the context of the visit of a Bulgarian delegation to Ukraine. Now, to the old suggestion (...) another false claim has been added - namely, that Bulgaria almost agrees to the introduction of the Ukrainian language in Bulgarian schools and the rewriting of textbooks”, Yulzari says.
The journalist explains that such claims are spread mainly through social networks and through profiles of public figures with clearly expressed pro-Russian bias. “As for the model, it repeats the way in which disinformation is largely spread in our country - a real, complex and sensitive case is translated into the language of indignation and fear”, adds Yulzari. According to him, this narrative fits very clearly into the broader disinformation picture surrounding the war in Ukraine and is part of a larger effort to present Ukraine as a state that oppresses minorities, violates rights and is hostile to Bulgarians.
“The topic of the rights of national minorities and the rights of one's own diaspora abroad is extremely sensitive for every nation. Therefore, the task of governments is to interact as effectively as possible to prevent and counteract the emergence of fake news, as well as to systematically work in the fight against information and hybrid attacks,” states the Ambassador of Ukraine Olesya Ilashchuk.
Occupied classrooms: the real threats to education
She told DW that in the Ukrainian territories occupied by Russia, all educational institutions where Bulgarian was taught have ceased their activities. “The Russian occupation authorities continue a policy of linguistic genocide and forced Russification, depriving people in the temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories of the opportunity to study their native language. This applies to Ukrainians, ethnic Bulgarians, and representatives of other national communities there”, adds the Ukrainian diplomat.
Despite the war, a number of guardians of the Bulgarian word continue to provide various opportunities for studying the Bulgarian language, culture and history. “As I have said more than once, life in Ukraine continues despite the war. People, in addition to opposing aggression and threats to their lives, also care about basic values, education, development, culture”, says Ms. Ilashchuk.
One example is the Preslav Gymnasium in Zaporizhia region, which since September 1, 2022 has been maintaining the educational process entirely in a distance format. The cultural and educational center in the village - “John Atanasov” - has also been forced to close its doors. Today, the high school has 243 students, some of whom are in the territories occupied by Russia, others are displaced throughout other regions of Ukraine, and still others have found protection in Bulgaria. “In our high school, they get the valuable opportunity to study Bulgarian not only as their native language, but also as the language of the country in which they currently reside”, says the school's director Tatyana Savova.
Need to preserve identity
For her, the war and occupation inevitably have a negative impact on the opportunities and motivation for systematic study of the Bulgarian language. “The constant stress, the interruptions in communication and, above all, the systematic persecution of children in the occupied territories who are trying to receive a Ukrainian education, lead to an objective decline in the number of active learners. Physical survival often comes to the fore”, adds Savova.
Despite all the challenges facing the educational process, the internal need to preserve identity is growing, the director claims. “In conditions of threat to the very existence of the community, the Bulgarian language and traditions are perceived as that “light in the soul that preserves human dignity”, she adds.