Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said she opposed granting Russian official languange status, Oct. 1. Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko confirmed her opposition of allowing Ukrainian government officials to speak Russian on official duty, Oct. 1.

“I categorically oppose this, and I believe that the national language should be only the Ukrainian language and if officials want to be Ukrainian officials they should speak only in the Ukrainian language,” Tymoshenko said.

Her opponent’s statements saying that she and her bloc favored allowing government officials to speak in Russian and granting the Russian language the status of an official language, were unfair and false, she added.

Moreover, Tymoshenko said that one of the several decrees that President Viktor Yuschenko signed and published when he was contesting the presidential elections in 2004 provided for allowing civil servants to speak in Russian.

As Ukrainian News earlier reported, the Yulia Tymoshenko Bloc voted with the Party of the Regions and the Communist Party on September 19 to approve the law on the civil service that allows government officials to speak Russian.