National Minorities and Ethnic Groups in Ukraine as Part of the Linguistic Identity Question

The article aims at illustrating the linguistic situation of national minorities and ethnic groups in independent Ukraine. It describes the historical context in which minority groups in Ukraine were formed, as well as the main language identity issues that Ukraine had to face before and after 1991. The socio-political dynamics in which minorities lived in the first decades after 1991 are described. The main part outlines the situation of major minorities, provides data concerning the variation of specific groups and underlines how these numerical fluctuations have affected the linguistic situation of the country. The article takes into consideration statistical data, scientific articles and monographs on the subject, as well as publications in the mass media.