Members of Ukraine’s parliament have introduced a draft law that would tighten language requirements for private schools, proposing new restrictions on the use of Russian in education. The bill, published on the Verkhovna Rada’s website, would amend the law “On Complete General Secondary Education.”

The initiative was submitted by lawmakers Nataliia Pipa of the Holos party, Ihor Huz of the For the Future parliamentary group, and Volodymyr Viatrovych of European Solidarity. In the explanatory note, the authors cite reports of private, including unlicensed, educational institutions where instruction is conducted in Russian. The bill proposes stripping private schools of the right to independently determine the language of instruction and banning the use of the Russian language in the educational process.

The proposal is being discussed against the backdrop of an official inspection of an educational institution operating at the Holosiivskyi Monastery of the canonical Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) in Kyiv. On January 7, Ukraine’s State Service for Education Quality announced it had launched a review into reports concerning the institution’s activities.

According to Ukrainian media, more than 60 children from grades one through nine attend the program, which employs 16 teachers. The organization’s management says it is a family club offering supplementary classes rather than a full-fledged school.

On January 8, the Office of the Prosecutor General announced the opening of a pretrial investigation into the project. The criminal case was initiated under an article related to the public use of symbols of the communist totalitarian regime. Prosecutors said the investigation was prompted by a journalistic inquiry alleging the use of Soviet-era textbooks and the performance of Soviet songs during classes. The case is being handled by investigators from the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) under the supervision of juvenile prosecutors.

Representatives of the educational project have rejected the allegations, saying the classes are intended to support children for whom Russian remains their native language and that the activities are not political in nature. At the same time, some Ukrainian media outlets and public figures have called for stricter oversight of similar initiatives amid the ongoing conflict with Russia.

Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov has previously claimed in interviews that the authorities are consistently tightening policies toward Russian-speaking citizens and members of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Ukrainian officials in Kyiv have dismissed such accusations, insisting that the measures are aimed at protecting the state language and ensuring national security.