Ukrainian or Russian: deciding per file
Many people in Ukraine speak both languages, and the balance depends on region, age and setting. Since 2022 many Russian speakers have moved toward Ukrainian, so a recording can contain a speaker's Ukrainian alongside a relative's Russian.
Choose by who talks most, not by where the file was made. A Kharkiv interview where the interviewer asks in Ukrainian and the respondent answers at length in Russian should be run as Russian. A Kyiv lecture in Ukrainian with a Russian question from the audience should stay Ukrainian. When the two languages come in long separate blocks, cut the file and upload each part with its own language. That is more accurate than forcing both through one setting.
Regional Ukrainian in the transcript
The model writes standard literary Ukrainian, so regional words are often replaced with their standard equivalent.
- Galician speech around Lviv uses Polish- and German-origin words. These can be rewritten as standard words or misheard.
- Southern and eastern speech often carries Russian intonation and loanwords even when the speaker uses Ukrainian. The model writes these in Ukrainian spelling or replaces them, so check quotes that must be exact.
- Hutsul and Boyko speech in the Carpathians differs a lot from the standard. Treat those passages as a draft.
- Transcarpathian and Rusyn speech near Uzhhorod is the hardest case and often needs typing by ear.
- Polissian speech in the north mixes Ukrainian and Belarusian features. Names and local words need checking.
Minority languages in Ukraine
Hungarian is spoken in Zakarpattia and has its own option. Romanian is spoken in Chernivtsi region and parts of Odesa region, and it is in the menu too. Bulgarian and Gagauz communities live in southern Bessarabia. Bulgarian is an option, Gagauz is not. Polish and Belarusian are both available.
Speakers of these languages in Ukraine often mix in Ukrainian or Russian words for official or modern topics. Pick the language that fills most of the file and review the borrowed words, especially names of institutions and towns.
Crimean Tatar has no option. The Tatar option in the menu is Volga Tatar, a different language, so it will not give a usable Crimean Tatar transcript.
English appears in recordings with international organisations, journalists and volunteers. If an interview runs through an interpreter, pick the language that carries most of the content, or split the file when both languages are long.
Typical recordings from Ukraine
Upload the file as it is, or paste a YouTube link. Some sites need a login and will not import, so download the video and upload it. Files are never used to train AI models, which matters for sensitive testimony.
Many recordings from Ukraine are made in hard conditions: air raid sirens, generators, wind on a field recording, or a weak connection on an online lecture. Upload the original file rather than a re-sent copy from a messenger, and expect noisy stretches to need more editing. Voice notes and phone videos can be uploaded as they are.
- University lectures held online, recorded in Zoom or Google Meet.
- Interviews by volunteers, NGOs and documentation teams.
- Sessions of a city or village council published on YouTube.
- Local news streams and Telegram videos that need text or subtitles.
- Voice notes and family videos from relatives at home or abroad.
Correcting names and exporting
Click a line to hear it again and correct names of towns, units and people in place. Export TXT, DOCX, PDF, SRT, VTT or CSV with timestamps and speaker names on or off. Speaker labels are on paid plans or with a Minute Pack. The text stays in the spoken language. Use the Google Translate link or the AI prompt export for an English reading.