The apostrophe symbol can be used in Ukrainian IDN domain names.

Experts from the Ukrainian Network Information Center (UNIC) sent a letter to ICANN regarding the use of the apostrophe symbol in domain names.

As part of the IDN project, ICANN created a working group to study Cyrillic alphabets and domains (Cyrillic Case Study Group). This group included representatives from Ukraine: Alexey Mikhailov, Alexey Ptashnyy (Ukrnames), Oksana Prikhodko (representative of the Internet community), and Yuriy Kargapolov (UANIC).

The group's task was to study preliminary issues related to the specifics and possibilities of using Cyrillic alphabets in the formation of domain names based on national Cyrillic alphabets.

During the group's work, several issues related to the use of specific letters and symbols in Cyrillic alphabets were identified. One such issue was the use of the apostrophe.

The Ukrainian apostrophe is very similar to the Latin apostrophe, which is prohibited for use in domain names. The Ukrainian apostrophe is not included in the Cyrillic character group in the Unicode standard. Therefore, internet and computer users use the Latin apostrophe instead of the Ukrainian one. Furthermore, many programs (for example, MS Word) even use a third character instead of the Ukrainian apostrophe.

However, in the Ukrainian language, the apostrophe is a common letter of the Ukrainian alphabet, used in a huge number of words, many of which are basic to the language. Ukrainians don't tend to omit apostrophes when writing words, so creating Ukrainian IDN domains is pointless if the use of apostrophes is prohibited. The apostrophe was part of Ukraine's application for the .УКР IDN domain.

All these arguments were presented in a letter to ICANN and the Cyrillic Case Study group.