Editing Surzhyk (section)

==Ethnopolitical issues==
In [[Soviet era|Soviet times]], the usage of Ukrainian gradually decreased, particularly during those times when the [[Russification of Ukraine #Soviet period|Russification]] policies intensified (i.e. in the 1930s and during the late 1970s to early 1980s), and so a sizable portion of ethnic Ukrainians possess a better knowledge of formal Russian than of formal Ukrainian.  Since 1991, however, Ukrainian has been the sole official language. After this change, it was realised that much of the population of Ukraine was actually unable to speak Ukrainian fluently. This was highly apparent in the case of many Ukrainian officials (including the President of Ukraine), who were observed to make code-mixing mistakes in their speech.<ref name="how do Ukrainians communicate">Podolyan Ilona E. “How Do Ukrainians Communicate? Observations Based upon Youth Population of Kyiv”. ''Kyiv National Linguistic University, Ukraine.'' p. 2-4</ref> 

The prevalence of Surzhyk is greatest in the countryside. In the cities, people tend to speak more standard forms of Ukrainian or Russian. This contrasts with the more rural inhabitants, who lack the prestige associated with the educational and technological advantages that people in the cities have. However, in spite of the differences that exist between the rural and urban varieties of the spoken language, many visitors find that they have trouble communicating with the local population of Ukraine when they follow guidebooks published abroad. This is because these books tend to focus on either pure Russian or pure Ukrainian and disregard the hybrid form.<ref name="how do Ukrainians communicate"/>
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 |quote  = Russian is still the language heard on the street [in Odesa], but by now everyone understands Ukrainian, and many locals will pepper their conversations patriotically with Ukrainian, developing a local variety of Surzhyk – that mix of Ukrainian and Russian heard across most of the country.
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 |source = – ''[[Kyiv Post]]'' (2024)<ref name="j841"/>
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The speaking of Surzhyk instead of Russian or Ukrainian is viewed negatively by nationalist language activists. Because it is neither one nor the other, they regard Surzhyk as a threat to the uniqueness of Ukrainian culture.<ref name="Surzhyk and National Identity "/> On the other hand, since the 2013–2014 [[Revolution of Dignity]] and beginning of the [[Russo-Ukrainian War]], and especially since the 2022 full-scale [[Russian invasion of Ukraine]], large groups of Ukrainians who were raised speaking and writing Russian have been making the conscious choice of linguistic conversion to Ukrainian.{{sfn|Maxwell|Kudriavtseva|Skubii|2024}} Individuals in this process find themselves mixing both languages on occasion (called "Neo-Surzhyk" by some researchers), and while striving to learn "proper" Ukrainian, many of them have been reclaiming Surzhyk as a positive, necessary first step in their transition away from Russian towards Ukrainian.{{sfn|Maxwell|Kudriavtseva|Skubii|2024}}

Whereas traditional views mostly negatively evaluate Surzhyk as "impure" or a "corruption" of either Ukrainian or Russian, this Neo-Surzhyk by native Russian speakers switching to Ukrainian is perceived as "better than Russian", and as part of the Ukrainian language, or at least part of the journey towards standard Ukrainian.{{sfn|Maxwell|Kudriavtseva|Skubii|2024}} Since 2022, the emergence of such a new Surzhyk has been observed in cities such as [[Odesa]], which has been a cultural and ethnolinguistic crossroads since its foundation in 1792, and used to be overwhelmingly Russian-speaking. But Odeas's residents (including many internally displaced people from southern and eastern Ukraine) have been consciously increasingly taking Ukrainian courses, and introducing more forms of Ukrainian into their everyday language usage for patriotic purposes, without necessarily abandoning Russian altogether yet.<ref name="j841">{{cite web |last=Luczkiw |first=Stash |title=Strains of Ukrainian in Odesa |website=Kyiv Post |date=9 March 2024 |url=https://www.kyivpost.com/post/29189 |access-date=4 January 2025}}</ref>