Russian to Ukrainian Translation

This direction applies when a Russian document has to be used in Ukraine. The source is a diploma, civil registry record or contract from Russia or from a CIS country where Russian is widely used; the target is an official procedure in Ukraine. Both languages use the Cyrillic alphabet, so they look similar on the surface; Russian and Ukrainian are nonetheless separate languages, and that similarity is the source of the commonest error.

Typical users are people with a background in the Russian-speaking area who are dealing with a procedure in Ukraine: a graduate submitting a diploma drawn up in Russian for recognition in Ukraine, someone submitting a Russian contract or power of attorney for a procedure in Ukraine, Russian documents that institutions in a CIS country will send to their counterpart in Ukraine. In these profiles, overlooking the fact that the two are separate languages is the commonest and the costliest error.

Challenges specific to this pair

Russian and Ukrainian have words that are close in spelling but different in meaning (false friends); relying on them in an official text leads to a shift of meaning. In rendering personal names the only criterion is the spelling in the person’s passport; since the same name can be written differently in its Russian and its Ukrainian form, the passport is taken as the basis. The patronymic exists in both languages and is carried across in the correct form. Although the alphabet is the same, the repertoire of letters differs (the Ukrainian letters ï, і and є, for example).

The second difficulty lies in place and institution names. The official Ukrainian equivalents are used; where the Russian form of a city or an institution diverges from the Ukrainian form, the official name in the target language is taken as the basis. Russian administrative and legal terms are carried into Ukrainian by their function. Marking systems are not converted but explained, and the recognition decision is left to the body concerned. The positions of the seals and signatures in the source document are preserved in the translation with a note; their contents are translated and their functions preserved.

Third, both sides sharing the post-Soviet notarial tradition makes the format of the documents similar; the distinction of language is nonetheless preserved, and numbers (registration, series) are not translated but identified by the record they belong to. In recognition and official procedure files with many documents, the name, the patronymic and the equivalents given for institutions are kept consistent across all documents. The surface similarity between Russian and Ukrainian is not a reason to translate carelessly but, on the contrary, the reason to translate with more care.

Because the Ukrainian version of a document is taken as the basis in Ukrainian official procedures, the target text has to be prepared wholly and in correct Ukrainian even where the source is Russian; hybrid texts in which the two languages are mixed are not accepted. For place names the current official Ukrainian form is used; where the Russian form of a city or an institution diverges from the Ukrainian form, the official name in the target language is taken as the basis and an explanation is added where needed. In rendering personal names the only criterion is the spelling in the passport; no automatic switch is made from the Russian form to the Ukrainian form, and whichever form appears in the document and on the identity card is preserved. The content of the seals and certification annotations in the source document is translated and their positions are indicated with a note. Depending on the country the document came from, the apostille or the certification applied is verified beforehand; the notary and the institution concerned in Ukraine can then process the translation in one pass and the integrity of the file is preserved. Telling us the target institution before you send the document allows us to settle the right level of certification and the right choice of terms from the start. Not confusing Ukrainian with Russian is the most visible measure of translation quality in this direction, and it is watched over meticulously at every stage of the process.

Documents for which this direction is asked

Diplomas, transcripts and professional documents lead the way; they are followed by birth, marriage and civil registry records and by powers of attorney, contracts and commercial documents. In recognition and official procedures, the correct rendering of the person’s name and of institution names into Ukrainian matters particularly.

• Diplomas, transcripts and professional documents
• Birth, marriage and civil registry records
• Powers of attorney, contracts and commercial documents

Chain of certification

Ukraine works on the basis of the notarised translation (нотаріальний переклад). Depending on the country the source document came from, an apostille or the certification applied there is required; for documents originating in Russia the position on the apostille can vary with bilateral agreements and needs confirmation. Check the certification regime of the country you will be applying to and the requirements for the document beforehand.

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