Language law and missile strike: Ukraine on 28 June 2024
A retrospective on a day when a new English-language law and a strike on Dnipro sat side by side in Ukraine's news.
What did Ukraine's public life look like on 28 June 2024? It combined the slow work of state-building with the immediate cost of the war.
The day before, on 27 June 2024, president Volodymyr Zelenskyy had signed a law establishing English as an official language of international communication in Ukraine. The measure concerned how the country presents itself and deals with partners abroad, and it was fresh on the statute book as the day began.
On 28 June 2024 itself, a Russian missile hit a nine-storey residential building in Dnipro. At least one person was killed and 12 others were injured.
A regional backdrop
Beyond Ukraine's borders, the leaders of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia had on 26 June 2024 called on the European Union to build a €2.5 billion (US$2.67 billion) defence line between them and Russia and Belarus. They described its purpose as securing the EU from military, economic and migrant-related threats.
Taken together, these reports show a country legislating for its international standing while its cities remained under fire, and neighbours to the north-west pressing for stronger protection on the EU's eastern edge.
