In the trenches, on duty and in shelters: how Ukraine held the National Unity Radio Dictation

Today, October 27, on Ukrainian Writing and Language Day, the National Unity Radio Dictation was traditionally held in Ukraine, written by politicians, famous stars and military personnel, reports UNN.

Details

Despite another difficult night, when the enemy attacked our cities with ballistic missiles and hundreds of drones, despite the fatigue, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians sat down together to write a dictation in their native language. The enemy may destroy buildings, but it is unable to destroy what makes us Ukrainians: our language, culture, history and unity. They cannot be broken by missiles, drones or any other weapon. Our resilience and our unity rest on this foundation. And this is our response to every attempt to intimidate or break us. Thank you to everyone who joined the National Unity Radio Dictation today

Olena Ivanovska, the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, representatives of the Commissioner in the regions and the Secretariat team also joined the radio dictation.

"A Letter That Does Not End" by Artur Dron brought together millions of Ukrainians in different parts of Ukraine and far beyond its borders. Military personnel and veterans, teachers and schoolchildren, volunteers, civil servants, and Ukrainians scattered around the world by the war all wrote it. It was precisely for the sake of this unity that the tradition of the Radio Dictation was born 27 years ago

Minister of Culture Tetiana Berezhna also showed a photo of herself writing the dictation at the Scientific and Technical Library of the National Technical University "Kyiv Polytechnic Institute."

"Language truly knows no boundaries." Artur Dron's very poignant text for this year's National Unity Radio Dictation is called "A Letter That Does Not End." And I really wanted this letter not to end. I joined the dictation. I have been writing it for many years, and I get nervous every time. This time, I allowed myself the right to make a mistake and enjoyed the text and its reading. I love this tradition very much: in different cities and countries, Ukrainians pick up their pens and listen to the same text. Everyone has their own handwriting, their own doubts about commas, and their own history of relations with the Ukrainian language. And at the same time, there is a shared feeling of closeness. In Artur's text, language protects us when the present is frightening and helps us create the future. It preserves memory, passes on experience, and provides words for what matters most. For a conversation with an entire country and for a personal "I love you"

The mayor of Ivano-Frankivsk, Ruslan Martsinkiv, also showed how he wrote the dictation together with students.

I joined the National Unity Radio Dictation. The most important things we have are Ukrainian statehood and the Ukrainian language! Thank you to our Defenders

As usual, Ukrainian military personnel also joined the radio dictation; in particular, some of them wrote it from the front line, right in the trenches.

And how did your radio dictation go this year?

The soldiers of the 50th Separate Artillery Brigade, the 92nd Assault Brigade named after Koshovyi Otaman Ivan Sirko, the 10th Separate Mountain Assault Brigade "Edelweiss," the 1st Separate Heavy Mechanized Siverska Brigade, the 22nd Separate Unmanned Systems Battalion and the 39th Anti-Aircraft Missile Regiment also joined in writing the dictation at their combat positions.

On Ukrainian Writing and Language Day, service members of Operational Command "West," organized by specialists from the personnel psychological support structure in cooperation with representatives of the communications structure, joined the traditional Nationwide Radio Dictation. It is the same weapon that the enemy tried to destroy for centuries but never managed to break. Today, we are defending not merely our borders, dignity and sovereignty; we are defending the right to speak, think, read and write, and simply to live in Ukrainian on our own land. Our native word is our "friend-or-foe" password, and as long as our commands are heard in Ukrainian over the radios, we will stand, endure and win

Ukrainian border guards also wrote the dictation. 

Border guards from various units and agencies of the State Border Guard Service of Ukraine, together with thousands of Ukrainians, joined the 2026 National Unity Radio Dictation. This year's text, titled "The Letter That Never Ends," was written by Ukrainian writer and veteran of the Russian-Ukrainian war Artur Dron. For border guards, participating in the radio dictation is not only an opportunity to test their knowledge of their native language, but also a chance to join a shared tradition that unites Ukrainians regardless of their profession, location, or circumstances

In addition, the Strategic Communications Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine showed how service members from various brigades wrote the dictation at their positions, including soldiers from the Presidential Brigade, the 128th, 82nd, and 29th brigades, the 20th Corps, and cadets of the Military Institute of Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv.

Celebrities also joined in writing the dictation. In particular, war veteran and public figure Oleksandr Teren showed a photo of himself writing the dictation together with singer "Leleka," actress Maryna Koshkina, bloggers Dasha Kubik and Vlad Shevchenko, as well as chef Yevhen Klopotenko.

By the way, Yevhen Klopotenko shared his alphabet of Ukrainian cuisine on Instagram.

I love how simply and logically we name dishes. You study food—you discover new words

We would like to remind you

Ukrainian singer and model Dasha Astafieva shared an intimate photo on social media of herself on horseback. "I'm flying to you," she captioned the photos ahead of the National Unity Radio Dictation.