KIEV, July 1. /TASS/. The law on the indigenous peoples of Ukraine, passed by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the initiative of President Vladimir Zelensky, deepens the rift in the society, because it harms the rights of ethnic Russians living in the country, the Opposition Platform - For Life political party said in a statement Thursday.
"This law only deepens the rift in the Ukrainian society. Ukraine turns into a nationalistic state with privileged peoples that enjoy all cultural, linguistic, informational rights and even a right for their own representative institutions. And then there are ‘undesirable’ disempowered national minorities - first and foremost, Russians, who only get discrimination, insulting accusations, quotas, fines and the policy of forced assimilation," the statement says.
According to the party, the adoption of this bill is a continuation of a nationalist policy of the Ukrainian leadership.
"The authority has banned regional languages. It has stripped millions of Russians and Russian-speaking Ukrainian citizens an option to receive education in the language of their families. It has imposed language quotas in the media. It has restricted the right of the use of Russian and other languages of national communities in the public sphere and at workplaces," the party reminded.
The opposition expressed its decisive protest against the "unfair and undemocratic policy of division of the multinational Ukrainian people," and demanded that his law, as well as other documents restricting the natural rights of the people, are cancelled.
About the law
According to the accompanying memo, "the bill provides a definition of the concept of an ‘indigenous people of Ukraine’ as an autochthonous ethnical entity, formed on Ukrainian territory, which carries an authentic language and culture, has traditional, social, cultural or representative structures, considers itself an indigenous people of Ukraine, comprises an ethnic minority in its population, and does not have its own state entity beyond Ukraine. According to this definition, the indigenous peoples of Ukraine are Crimean Tatars, Karaims and Krymchaks," the accompanying memo says.
This definition means that Russians cannot be considered an indigenous people of Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a televised interview that the bill does not comply with the norms of international humanitarian law. The head of state noted that to call Russians a non-indigenous people "is not simply incorrect, but laughable and stupid," that such a position does not comply with history, and that Kiev’s idea to declare Russians non-indigenous would severely harm to the Russian people. According to Putin, the consequences of adopting this bill could be compared with a use of a weapon of mass destruction.