MOSCOW, May 3. /TASS/. The Kiev regime will never be able to cancel the Russian language in the country, no matter how hard they try to do this, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"Ukraine continues the Kiev regime’s greatest purpose - to uproot the Russian language," she said. "The Russian language has miraculously survived in three schools where it is a separate discipline. Even the werewolves on Bankovaya Street (where the presidential office is located - TASS) cannot get rid of it, despite all their bans."
She recalled that a provision of the law on the mass media increasing the share of the Ukrainian language on TV and radio to 90% came into force on January 1. The threshold was reduced to 30% for broadcasters in the languages of indigenous people and national minorities, which are official languages of European Union countries. "However, the law specifies that this provision is not applicable to the Russian language. The Council of Europe is rising in applause," Zakharova added.
She stressed that the Kiev regime banned the Russian language, "ignoring its own constitution." "It clearly fixes the commitment to develop, use and protect it," she noted. "Let alone [Ukrainian President Vladimir] Zelensky’s promises. By the way, he promised peace as well. But things turned out the other way round - neither peace nor the Russian language."
Ukraine has been pursuing a policy of ousting the Russian language since 2014, when a law on the state language binding to use Ukrainian in all spheres of life was adopted. Local authorities are banning Russian-language books, movies, theatrical performances, songs, as well as Russian classes at schools and universities, demanding that students use Ukrainian while speaking to each other.
On January 27, 2024, the Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian parliament) passed a law obliging local authorities to change all geographical names linked with Russia and the Soviet period.
However, the Russian language continues to be widely used in everyday life in Ukraine. According to Ukrainian sources, a fifth of schoolchildren don’t understand Ukrainian and only 15% actively speak it. A poll conducted in September 2023 at the request of the European Union’s consultative mission revealed that 45% of Ukrainian think that language discrimination is practiced in their country.