KIEV, August 6. /TASS/. The activity of President Vladimir Zelensky and his team is looking more and more like a dictatorial system to intimidate its own citizens and evict unwanted ones, the Opposition Platform — For Life party said on Friday.
"At first, in his interview with Dom TV channel, President Zelensky urged part of the Ukrainian nationals, who in his opinion have wrong views, to leave Ukraine. The State Language Protection Commissioner, Taras Kremin, went even further. He told a Ukrainian TV channel on-air that all discontent with the state language protection commissioner, the language law and Ukraine, should voice their complaints "before leaving for other countries" where they would feel calmer," the party said in a statement.
"In fact, an appeal came from a state official for the forced deportation of Ukrainian nationals who disagree with the discriminatory cultural and language policy of the government," it said.
"Never before in the history of Ukraine have the authorities ventured to directly intimidate their own nationals," it stressed.
The opposition party demanded that the authorities give up on threats targeting their nationals and ensure equality of their rights and freedoms irrespective of ethnicity, culture, language, as well as religious and worldview choices in accordance with the requirements of the Ukrainian Constitution.
Vladimir Zelensky said that it is a big mistake to remain in Donbass for those citizens who consider themselves Russian and advised them to go to Russia. He made this statement in an interview with the Dom TV channel. Kremin blogged on his Facebook page on Friday that those who did not like the law on the state language should leave the country.
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. 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.
Mass protests broke out in Ukraine’s eastern territories inhabited mostly by the Russian-speaking population following a coup d’etat in Ukraine in February 2014 and President Viktor Yanukovich’s removal from power. In mid-April of the same year, Kiev’s authorities launched a military operation in Donbass in response. Heavy artillery attacks on residential quarters, including the use of aviation, caused a massive humanitarian disaster in the region.
In 2014, Kiev began implementing an economic blockade against Donbass. Since December 2014, the Ukrainian government stopped all social payments there, including pensions, as well as bank services for residents and enterprises.
After Zelensky, who promised to bring peace to Donbass, won the 2019 presidential election there have been no significant changes. The plan of a peaceful settlement of the conflict was signed in February 2015 in Minsk following the talks of the "Normandy Four" leaders (Germany, Russia, Ukraine, France). The document was called the Package of Measures for the Implementation of the Minsk Agreements, and has yet to be implemented.