The ruling by Donetsk regional council of May 18, 2006 on the creation of conditions for the development of Russian language has been declared illegal, head of Donetsk regional organization of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, deputy leader of the Prosvita all-Ukrainian association Maria Oliynyk has said.
Oliynyk told Interfax-Ukraine that Donetsk Administrative Court of Appeals on July 16, 2010 left in effect the ruling by Voroshylivsky district court on the recognition as illegal of clauses one and two of the above motioned ruling by Donetsk regional council.
Clause one of the ruling envisages that "the Russian language is a regional language on the territory of Donetsk region in line with the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages."
Clause two of the ruling establishes that "on the territory of Donetsk region the Russian language can be used as the language of work, business correspondence, documentation and in the relations of population, state, public agencies, enterprises, establishments and organizations, as well as education, science and culture along with the national language, Ukrainian."
Oliynyk also sent a letter to Head of Donetsk Regional State Administration Anatoliy Blyzniuk. In the letter Oliynyk noted that following the appointment of Blyzniuk the head of administration the press service of the administration "started using only a non-national language in its reports, the national language of a neighboring state."
"I am calling for urgent halt of violations of the Constitution of Ukraine and providing information, as earlier, in the Ukrainian language or in two languages," reads a report, the text of which was sent to Interfax-Ukraine.
