You're reading: Yanukovych: Ukrainian language should be protected in Ukraine

The official language in Ukraine should be protected, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has said.

“We need to build a country in which everyone can feel free to speak their own language, but the Ukrainian language should be evolving and be protected,” Yanukovych said in an interview with the Komsomolskaya Pravda in Ukraine newspaper published on Friday.

He urged politicians not to speculate on the language issue and “to attend to real and pressing problems of the country and its citizens.”

The Cabinet of Ministers has established a working group which is developing a plan for the protection of the Ukrainian language, the president said.