As of Winter 2023–2024, the CENES Department is offering Ukrainian language classes at UBC.
In support of Ukraine’s resistance effort, as it comes out of the shadows of Russian and Soviet imperial geopolitical power, CENES intends to introduce to UBC students the distinctive, beautiful and ancient Ukrainian language, spoken by nearly 30 million people globally. (Canada has even had its own historical dialect of Ukrainian since the 1890s!)
Ever since the outbreak of the current war of aggression in February 2022, the CENES Russian program has supported and expressed solidarity with Ukraine’s fight for freedom and against Russian state and military oppression. The Russian and Ukrainian languages — both distinct but related to one another, and both spoken widely throughout Ukraine — are taught in CENES in this critical light.