The indigenous peoples of Ukraine are Crimean Tatars, Karaites, and Krymchaks — Ukrainians are not included

The response from the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, received as part of an official request, confirms that only three ethnocultural groups—Karaites, Krymchaks, and Crimean Tatars—have been recognized as indigenous peoples of Ukraine.

This selection is formally justified by the legal criterion that indigenous peoples must lack their own statehood outside Ukraine.

However, the core of the problem goes much deeper.

The issue is not that ethnic Ukrainians supposedly do not meet the legal definition of indigenous peoples due to having their own nation-state.

The issue is that neither they nor other autochthonous ethnocultural communities—such as the Boykos, Lemkos, Hutsuls, Volynians, Podolians, Slobozhans, Polissians, and others who have lived on Ukrainian land for centuries—have been granted any legal status whatsoever. 

They are not recognized as indigenous, not protected as national minorities, and not acknowledged as a collective subject with the right to self-determination or territorial ownership.

Even if one accepts the argument that Ukrainians cannot qualify as an indigenous people because Ukraine is their state, the government was still obligated to formally recognize their legal subjectivity as a people—as the bearer of sovereignty, the source of power, and the owner of the land, as outlined in Articles 5 and 13 of the Constitution of Ukraine.

However, following the adoption of Law No. 1616-IX “On the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine” and Law No. 2827-IX “On National Minorities,” the legal status of collective subjectivity was granted exclusively to two categories: indigenous peoples and national minorities. Ethnic Ukrainians were explicitly excluded from both.

This resulted in a paradox: Ukrainians, as the titular nation and historical bearer of sovereignty, became the only group that is not covered by any form of collective legal subjectivity. This legal exclusion arose from a shift in the interpretation of the term “people” (narod) from a civic concept to an ethnocultural one—without including the titular nation itself.

In addition, Law No. 2215-IX “On Decommunization and Decolonization” eliminated legal continuity with Soviet legislation, which had explicitly recognized the titular nation as the bearer of sovereignty and the rightful owner of the land and resources.

In Ukraine’s current Constitution, the term “Ukrainian people” appears only in the preamble, which, according to Law No. 3354-IX “On Law-Making Activity,” carries no legal force and does not establish binding rights or obligations.

Thus, the combined effect of three key laws—No. 1616-IX, No. 2827-IX, and No. 2215-IX — was the complete exclusion of ethnic Ukrainians from all forms of legally defined collective subjectivity.

As of today, there is no law or legal act in Ukraine that affirms ethnic Ukrainians as a “people” in the sense of being a collective source of sovereignty, bearer of rights, or rightful owner of national territory. 

This legal vacuum has caused widespread frustration in Ukrainian society, particularly during a time of war, mass mobilization, and the dismantling of the principle of equality originally enshrined in the 1991 Declaration of the Rights of Nationalities.