Kharkiv Regional Council has taken a decision on priority measures for the implementation in Kharkiv region of the Ukrainian law on the principles of state language policy.
An Interfax-Ukraine reporter said that 98 deputies voted for this decision, three voted against it, and nine did not participate in the vote. The Batkivschyna faction in the regional council left the session hall during the vote.
“[The regional council has decided] to bring to the attention of citizens, local government agencies and public associations of enterprises, institutions and organizations that the measures envisaged by the law of Ukraine on the principles of state language policy and aimed at its use in Kharkiv region are applied in the region,” reads the council’s decision.
In particular, the decision states that the documents of local government agencies are adopted in the state or Russian language and are officially published in these languages. Russian could be used during official work and in the documents of local government agencies. Public services are provided in the state and Russian languages. Officials and employees must speak Ukrainian and Russian and communicate with visitors who speak Russian, and provide answers in Russian or Ukrainian, depending on the language of the applicant.
The explanatory note to the draft decision also says that according to the census on the linguistic composition of the population of Kharkiv region, 44.3% of residents of the region learned Russian as their mother tongue.
