Oleg Lisovenko,
lawyer 

“As far as I know it’s not only about Russian, but also [about] other minority languages spoken by at least 10 percent of the regional residents. It is not the main problem in our country. We have many laws that are not enforced. I think the politicians are playing footsie with the electorate, because there is a considerable part of the population for whom the Russian language is more important.”

Tetyana Doro­shenko,
housekeeper

“The government is doing a snow job on us. They want to divide our country in Ukrainian- and Russian- speaking, again and again. I turn thumbs up on Ukrainian. I like it very much, even though I’m thinking and speaking Russian. We’re living in Ukraine and so Ukrainian the most important language for us.”

Victor Nazarenko,
pensioner 

“When Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko makes the Russian language the official one, then people in Belarus stop speaking Belarusian. Georgians now speak English but not Georgian. My attitude towards this is neutral.”

 

Oksana Yaremchuk,
PR manager 

“I’m against such a law because there is one official language which should be used all over the country and we must respect it.”

 

Oleg Yudin,
leasing company head 

“I can’t stand this and I’m totally against. The authority lost the vast part of the electorate in the central and western regions, where Ukrainian dominates. It’s nothing more than a pre-election game. As for me, it doesn’t change anything – my native language is Ukrainian.”