UNITED NATIONS, July 16. /TASS/. Russia will raise the issue of Kiev's violation of the Minsk Agreements at the July 16 session of the UN Security Council on Ukraine, Russia's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Dmitry Polyansky told TASS on Monday.

"We proceed from the fact that the Minsk Agreements include an article that states the right of Donbass residents to linguistic self-determination," Polyansky said. "So it looks like the law [on language] violates their right to linguistic self-determination if they hypothetically return to Ukraine. From our point of view, this is a direct violation of the Minsk Agreements. This is the issue we plan to raise," he added.

The diplomat reminded that Russia already requested to convene a UN SC emergency session on Ukraine's language law on May 15, but the request was denied after the US, UK, France, Poland, Belgium and Germany voted against the agenda for the session.

"They said, 'Why won't you wait until the law enters into force?'," Polyansky said. "Based on this recommendation, we suggested to Peru's chairmanship to hold such session on July 16, on the day that the law entered into force," he added. In accordance with the UN SC procedure, the agenda will once again be put up for voting, but since it is already part of the UN Security Council's agenda for July, the topic wll most likely be discussed regardless of the outcome of the voting.

"We will ask everyone to evaluate this law and the extent to which Ukraine violates the Minsk Agreements," the diplomat noted adding that "we expect everyone to provide an objectice assessment of this law."

On 25 April 2019, Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada adopted a law "On ensuring the status of Ukrainian as an official language." On May 15, the law was signed by then-Presidenr Pyotr Poroshenko. The document stipulates that citizens will speak Ukrainian language in all spheres and contexts.