A Guide to Ukraines Swear Words so You Can Follow the Viral Videos

A knowledge of Slavic swear words will help you decipher battlefield videos from Ukraine. Heres a Daily Beast primer.

Illustration by Elizabeth Brockway/ishonest

Its fair to say that Ukrainians like to swear, even in normal times. But now, with their country fighting off a Russian invasion, they might just rank as the sweariest people on Earth.

From the brave defenders of a Ukrainian island in the Black Sea telling a Russian warship to Go fuck yourself!, to an Odessa MP delivering a curt Fuck you, Lavrov! to the foreign minister of Russia, Vladimir Putins latest neo- imperialist adventure has already produced some pretty loud F-bombs. Even the road signs to Kiev have been changed to make sure the Russian invaders know where to get off.

Treatises have been written on the glories of Slavic swearing and the difference between Russian (genitalia-focused) and Ukrainian (more copro-centric) swear words. Here, in no particular order, is a short glossary of Ukrainian and Russian slurs and profanities (the strongest ones tend to be shared by both languages) that might help you decipher the social media footage from Putins war.

Warning: Strong language ahead.

Suka (): Bitch. A common insult across various Slavic languages, including Russian and Ukrainian. Theres also a diminutive, suchka, used as a term of endearment.

Pizda (): Cunt. Another core Slavic insult, although it has ancient Indo- European roots, if that helps.

Pizdets (): Shit. A derivative of Pizda, slightly less offensive. Can also be used to mean something like clusterfuck, or an irreparably fucked-up situation, like Putins invasion of Ukraine.

Khuy (): Cock. Khuy is arguably the bedrock of Russian profanity, most commonly used in the expression Idi na khuy! ( !) meaning go fuck yourself! That was what the defenders of Snake Island told the Russian warship demanding their surrender on the first day of the conflict.

Poshol na khuy ( ): Fuck you! Another very popular, and rude, insult; usually accompanied by a special hand gesture (your right hand palm across the middle of the left arm).

Khuylo (): Dickhead. Often used with suka as an intensifier to form suka khuylo! What a fucking dickhead!

Putin khuylo! ( ): Putin is a dickhead! Began as a football chant, but quickly became the rallying cry of Ukrainian resistance after the Russian invasion of the Donbas in 2014.

PTN PNH (, ): Putin, go fuck yourself! Another anti-Putin message, seen scrawled in graffiti.

Kurva (): Whore, Shit: Milder Ukrainian swear word, thought to have come from the Polish.

Laino, Givno, Dermo (, , o): Shit. The Ukrainians have a lot of words for it.

Khokhol (): From an old Cossack surname (remember Nikolai Gogol?) that the Russians use as a nasty ethnic slur against Ukrainians: such as Go home to Chernobyl, Khokhol! (The Ukrainians have similar slurs for Russians, including Katsap, or billy goat, referring to old Russian men with beards.)

Blyat (): Bitch, Fuck, Shit! Not the strongest but definitely the most common profanity heard in Ukraine battlefield videos, so if you only learn one Slavic swear word this should be it. Its success comes from its multifunctionalityother words can be added in front, e.g., suka blyatto form limitless new insults that mean whatever you want them to. ishonest counted no fewer than 25 blyats in a two-minute clip showing the remains of a Russian convoy destroyed near the town of Bucha.

Yebat (): To Fuck. Finally we get there! Most commonly used in the expression Yob tvoyu mat ( ): Fuck Your Mother! Or Vashu Mat (B ): Your mother, which is just the second half of its longer equivalent, and slightly less offensive.

Mat (): Mother. This is the Russian word for mother, not of itself an insult but so commonly combined with other profanities (see above) that linguists use matershchina, or just mat, as the umbrella term for profane language in Russian and Ukrainian. So, hows your mat now?

With thanks to Svitlana Haverstock for linguistic advice.

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