UK apologises to Ukrainian child refugees pressed to study Russian, and launches a Ukrainian GCSE

On a visit to St Mary's school in west London, schools minister Georgia Gould told a room of Ukrainian pupils that she was sorry. Many of them, she said, had been pushed into studying Russian. The apology came with an announcement: the government is funding a new GCSE in Ukrainian.

The qualification is being developed by the AQA exam board, backed by a £340,000 grant from the Department for Education. It will be ready in England in 2028. Gould said: "So many students were pushed into having to do Russian. I'm really sorry that they were put in that position." When she announced the plan to about a dozen Ukrainian pupils, they applauded and said "diakuyemo", Ukrainian for thank you very much.

The backdrop is the more than 30,000 Ukrainian children who have fled to the UK since Vladimir Putin's invasion in 2022. With no Ukrainian GCSE available, some were encouraged by school staff to take Russian. The refugees describe that as insulting. In a 2024 letter to the DfE, Ukraine's education ministry in Kyiv said it was deeply concerned that, for lack of a Ukrainian GCSE, many children were being pressured by school staff to sit the Russian one.

The new exam follows years of lobbying by the Ukrainian government and community groups. Gould said a Ukrainian GCSE was one of the Ukrainian government's requests, and one from the community and young people. She also said the exam board had been nervous about building a qualification for a relatively small group of students, but that the government wanted to put money behind it, and she thanked AQA for coming forward.

The language sits at the cultural frontline of the war. Putin has banned Ukrainian books, and the teaching of Ukrainian, in land Russia has occupied. Gould said the British government stands steadfast behind the Ukrainian people, whether through military or cultural support. Ukraine's education minister, Andrii Butenko, said he was grateful. He said the GCSE would give children forced from their homes an equal opportunity to choose their native language as an exam subject, and that Ukraine would keep working with AQA and the DfE on a high-quality, accessible qualification.

St Mary's is the centre of a network of 13 Ukrainian-language schools in the UK. There Gould met Vitalii Andronik, 20, who told the Guardian in 2024 that he had been urged to take Russian GCSE at 15 as a refugee. She told him she was sorry he had been put in that position. He welcomed both the apology and the exam. "It's too late to me," he said, "but I want future generations of refugees to study Ukrainian." He called it a recognition of the trauma they went through.

Sofiia Chonka, 16, fled Zakarpattia in south-west Ukraine for London with her family in June 2024. She was told in year 9 to study Russian and simply said no. "They killed my people and injured my family," she said. Now starting A-levels, she plans to sit the new exam when it is available. She said she was sad it took so long, but glad that younger friends will get the chance. She rejected the idea that the two languages are similar, saying they are completely different.

Inna Hryhorovych, head of St Mary's Trust, has campaigned for the GCSE since Russia annexed Crimea in 2014. She said it is hard to comprehend that the fight is over. Her next campaign will be for a Ukrainian A-level. Gould was cautious about that: for now, she said, the government is only doing GCSEs, and will see how it goes. She also encouraged British children to take the exam in solidarity, joking that Ukrainian pupils could tutor friends as a side hustle. Whether enough students sign up to sustain the course is the question to watch after 2028.