You're reading: Azarov: We won’t allow anyone to eradicate minority languages in Ukraine

Ukraine has developed a program to support the Ukrainian language, while guaranteeing the protection of minority languages, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said.

“Nobody is against the Ukrainian language. Quite the contrary, we
will now develop a large-scale program to support the Ukrainian
language. This should be done… We should support the Ukrainian
language. But we won’t allow anyone to eradicate all languages of the
peoples who live in Ukraine,” he said in Odesa on Tuesday, while
speaking with locals.

Azarov also added: “We have adopted the law [on the principles of
state language policy], and now we will secure it in documents… I know
that yesterday your [Odesa] City Council took a respective decision,
and the regional council will soon take [a similar decision].”

As reported, Odesa City Council, at an extraordinary session on
August 13, approved a resolution on the implementation of the law on the
principles of state language policy in the city of Odesa, granting
Russian the status of a regional language in the city.

According to the council’s decision, from now on Russian could be
used as a regional language in the city in office work, official
documents, at schools and universities, in advertising and municipal
toponymy.