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Ukraine’s new language regulations indicate departure from Minsk accords — Russian envoy

The bill on the Ukrainian language was passed by the Verkhovna Rada on April 25, 2019, and signed into law by then-President Pyotr Poroshenko on May 15

MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. Ukraine’s new language regulations mark another step away from the Minsk Agreements, Russian Envoy to the Contact Group on resolving the situation in Donbass Boris Gryzlov told reporters following the group’s video conference meeting on Wednesday.

"On July 16, new language regulations took effect in Ukraine that mark another step away from the Minsk Agreements, which provide Donbass with the right to linguistic self-determination," Gryzlov noted.

The bill on the Ukrainian language was passed by the Verkhovna Rada (parliament) on April 25, 2019, and signed into law by then-President Pyotr Poroshenko on May 15. In the winter of 2019, the Venice Commission recommended that the Ukrainian authorities revise the law. The commission’s experts believe that Kiev should adopt a law on ethnic minorities, otherwise the language law will create grounds for discrimination against them.

Under the law, cultural events can only be held in the state language. TV channels are obliged to broadcast 90% of their content in Ukrainian. A regulation making the Ukrainian language mandatory in the service industry came into force earlier this year. Regulations that introduce Ukrainian proficiency tests, make it obligatory to use Ukrainian in the movie industry and hold events in Ukrainian.

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