Ukraine abolishes law on languages of minorities, including Russian

(Interfax – February 23, 2014) Ukraine’s Verkhovna has abolished the law on the foundations of the state language policy adopted on July 3, 2012, by 232 out of 334 votes.

In July 2012 Verkhovna Rada passed the law initiated by the Party of Regions. In August Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych signed it into law and bound the Cabinet to set up a working group on advancing language legislation in Ukraine.

The law came into force on August 10, 2012. It permitted the use of two official languages in regions where the size of an ethnic minority exceeds 10%.

Russian was declared the second official language in Odesa, Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhya, Sevastopol, Dnipropetrovsk, Luhansk and Donetsk regions.

Hungarian, Moldovan and Rumanian were declared official languages in several towns in Western Ukraine.