RUSSIALINK: “Ukrainization should be ‘quite mild’ – Zelensky’s envoy to Verkhovna Rada” – Interfax

KYIV. July 1 (Interfax) – A Ukrainian presidential envoy to the Verkhovna Rada, and candidate number two on the Servant of the People party election list, Ruslan Stefanchuk, believes that one needs to fight for the Ukrainian language offering “quality, but not harassment.”

“As for the law on language, there are several positions. Firstly, the Ukrainian language is a state language in Ukraine, Article 10 of the Ukrainian Constitution. We will in no way step back from that. Secondly, I am sure that we should make the Ukrainization quite mild. I am convinced that the Alf TV series has done more for the Ukrainization than any governmental programs. As only in this TV series we first have received a comprehensible, nice and pure Ukrainian language,” he told Interfax.

All Ukrainian things will be developed in the country, when Ukrainian software is manufactured, for which users will be able to subscribe on easy terms, and the conditions for book publishers will really improve, Stefanchuk said.

People with pleasure watch Ukrainian films at movie theaters and the films dubbed in Ukrainian today, he said. “I already cannot see the Russian voice-over dubbing, it is quite clumsy for me. For instance, my wife speaks Russian and Ukrainian, because she was born in Poland and studied at a Russian school. However, we all the same are watching Ukrainian films, and the films dubbed in Ukrainian,” Stefanchuk said.

Zelensky’s envoy to the Rada and ideologist of his team is convinced that “one needs to fight for the language providing quality.” “Neither by bans, nor by persecution, but by quality. When the Ukrainian content will be more interesting and of a higher quality, then we will have an absolutely another attitude. While the state should work out all mechanisms for that,” he said.

As regards the place where the line should lie for decentralization in Ukraine, Stefanchuk said that he is standing for Ukraine with strong regions, which should receive accurate, comprehensible, and transparent mechanisms in economy, and understand what rights are being handed over to them.

“I think that the border should end there where the issues of the common loss of sovereignty, territorial surrender of interests and some things related to separatism are beginning,” the presidential envoy to the Rada said.