National Minorities in the Odesa Oblast – Applying the European Model to Ensure Peaceful Coexistence

Abstract The article deals with the situation of national minorities living in the Odesa oblast and in the town of Odesa with the main focus before the Russian war against Ukraine started on 24 of February 2022 but using also the relevant events happened afterwards. It explains what are the historical reasons that made Odesa a region so diverse from the national identity perspective, with a lot of national minorities living here from centuries. Although there are a significant number of studies on the issue of the national minorities in this region, none of them captured, so far, the complex relationship of Ukraine with the kin-states – Romania, Bulgaria and in some extent Turkey. The number of idp s in Ukraine was already high before the war started, with an important impact on the relationship of the Ukrainian majority with the national minorities and it will certainly be much higher after the war. The article takes into account this situation particularly for the Odesa oblast. The article examines how the institutions and the religious actors have influenced this relationship but how the war will shape it remains an open question. The article offers a perspective on the 2017 Ukrainian law in education, how it was applied until 24 of February 2022 and also on the 2022 Law on minorities, in order to find an answer to the question why a new framework for the national minorities in Ukraine after the end of the war is very important.