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Diplomat calls out Kiev’s new education law as taking aim at Russian language

On September 25, Ukraine's president signed a new law on education heavily restricting the right of ethnic minorities to get education in their native languages

© Kirill Kukhmar/TASS

MOSCOW, October 26. /TASS/. Kiev’s attempts to reassure its western neighbors that Ukraine’s new education law will not harm ethnic minorities related to them, make it clear that the law is actually aimed against the Russian language, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.

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"The Kiev regime pretends that nothing terrible happened, making promises to Warsaw, Bucharest, Budapest, Sofia and other capitals that education in their languages will not be affected in Ukraine," Zakharova said. "Then we have a question to ask - who will be affected?" she added.

"It turns out that all these measures are being taking only against the Russian-speaking population and the Russian language," the Russian diplomat pointed out adding that the Ukrainian authorities were carrying out a targeted attack against the Russian language.

The Russian Foreign Ministry’s spokeswoman called on eastern European countries "not to trust the promises of the Kiev authorities." "They will deceive you," she stressed.

On September 25, Ukrainian President Pyotr Poroshenko signed a new law on education heavily restricting the right of ethnic minorities to get education in their native languages. According to the law, starting from 2018, teaching in the languages of minorities will be possible only in primary school, while education in secondary schools, colleges and universities will be provided only in Ukrainian.

Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Greece, Moldova, Poland, Russian and other countries voiced their concern over the new Ukrainian law.

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Foreign policy Maria Zakharova

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