DOCUMENT What the strategic partnership between Ukraine and Romania provides for the rights of the Romanian minority

The strategic partnership between Romania and Ukraine, signed on Thursday in Bucharest by the presidents Nicușor Dan and Volodimir Zelenski, provides that Romanians in Ukraine will continue to have access to schools with teaching in the Romanian language and that the language, culture or ethnic identity of the Romanians will be respected.

The document that elevates the relations between Romania and Ukraine to the level of strategic partnership provides, when it comes to the Romanian minorities in Ukraine, but also to the Ukrainians living in Romania, that their linguistic rights will be fully respected.

Also, the two states undertake “to make every effort to effectively ensure the right to education in the mother tongue for all persons belonging to the Romanian national minority (community) living in Ukraine and for the Ukrainian national minority living in Romania, including by creating the necessary conditions for the effective exercise of these rights”.

The authorities in Bucharest and Kyiv promise to take measures to respect the rights of people in areas traditionally inhabited by minorities to preserve their language, culture and ethnic identity, in accordance with applicable international obligations.

A joint commission will also be established to research the history, culture and common heritage of Romania and Ukraine, the document signed on Thursday in Bucharest also shows.

Under the strategic partnership, there will be regular dialogue between “responsible government agencies” when it comes to religious matters. They will have to ensure that they facilitate contacts between churches, denominations and religious organizations, “fully recognizing the separation between Church and State”.

“Ukraine has an education reform. Through the perspective of this document, it makes an exception for minorities so that they can carry out their education in their locality in their native language. These guarantees offered to minorities are working,” President Nicușor Dan said today.

The head of state also said that the possibility to participate in the religious service in the mother tongue will be re-assured.

In addition, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy declared that August 31 will become “Romanian Language Day” in Ukraine.

The strategic partnership, initialed after three years of negotiations

Today Nicușor Dan and Volodimir Zelenski signed the necessary documents so that Romania and Ukraine become strategic partners, the highest level of collaboration between two states, in all areas of cooperation, from military, economic, to minority rights and education.

The Ukrainian side accepted all the demands of the Romanian side. Basically, the level of relations between states is rising. This partnership is being negotiated from 2023, but it was blocked due to the fact that the Ukrainians did not accept all of Romania's conditions.

The education reform in Ukraine would have merged schools with teaching in Romanian in Ukraine

In 2025, Ukraine decided to reform education, which would have meant that out of the 20 high schools with Romanian language teaching, they would be merged and only 4 would remain from September 1, 2027.

“In the future, this reform will also lead to the disappearance of gymnasiums, because in some of the localities the high schools will be taught in Ukrainian and then parents will no longer send their children to Romanian gymnasiums, but to Ukrainian ones, so that it will be easier for them to continue their studies. There is also the risk of the disappearance of the language when the school in the mother tongue disappears. This is a violation of the Constitution of Ukraine and human rights, which guarantee all citizens learning in the language mother”, said Neculai Costaș, teacher of Romanian language and literature at a secondary school in Chernivtsi.

At that time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that it “sent through diplomatic channels” that the requests of the Romanian minority must be respected, the reaction coming after Friday evening the president

And Nicușor Dan assured that the law “will not apply”:

“It is a law that is scheduled to enter into force in 2027 and will ensure, as far as Romanian high schools are concerned, that this provision will not apply to them until September 2027,” said the head of state.