Today there is a reconfiguration of the relationship between language and state loyalty. Loyalty to the state does not correlate with the language people prefer to speak.

The irony is that the war in Ukraine, which is being waged on behalf of Russian-speakers but mostly in Russian on both sides of the front line, is already having long-term implications for Ukrainian language policy.

One of the goals of the invasion of Ukraine, which Russia announced in February, was to protect the Russian-speaking population in that country. However, the war led to the exact opposite result: even in the Russian-speaking regions of Ukraine, more and more residents refuse to speak Russian, associating this language with the language of occupation and military aggression, and switch to Ukrainian, both in official and personal communication.

People may have one of a range of possible attitudes towards others who do not share their loyalties, with hate and disdain at one end, indifference in the middle, and concern and positive feeling at the other.