Mykolaiv City Council has granted the Russian language the status of regional language in the city, according to local media reports.
According to the News-N newspaper, 60 members of the city council voted for this decision at the meeting on Tuesday, four voted against, another four abstained. The rest of members of the council did not vote.
As reported, the law on the principles of the state language policy in Ukraine, which significantly broadens the use of the Russian language and other minority languages in the country, entered into force after its official publication on August 10. According to the document, if the number of native speakers of one of these languages is 10% or more of the population of the territory on which the language is used, then measures aimed at use of regional and minority languages will apply.
Kharkiv City Council, Odesa City Council, Odesa Regional Council, Sevastopol City Council, Krasny Luch Town Council in Luhansk region, Zaporizhia, Kherson and Dnipropetrovsk Regional Councils assigned Russian language with the regional status.
The Crimean parliament instructed the Crimean government to draft and submit for approval amendments to the law of Ukraine on the principles of the state language policy by October 10, 2012.
