In 2016-2017, language quotas were introduced on television and radio (up to 75% of content in Ukrainian), which reduced the presence of the Russian language in the media.
In 2018, the Constitutional Court of Ukraine repealed the 2012 law "On the Fundamentals of State Language Policy" (known as the Kivalov-Kolesnichenko Act), which gave Russian the status of a regional language in areas with more than 10% of native speakers.
The law "On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language" adopted in 2019 tightened the requirements for the use of Ukrainian in education, public services and the public sphere.

There was no direct ban on private use, but systemic restrictions in the public space raised concerns among Russian-speaking citizens about the future of their linguistic identity.