KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine’s parliament approved a law on Thursday that grants special status to the Ukrainian language and makes it mandatory for public sector workers, despite opposition from the country’s large Russian-speaking minority who feel it is discriminatory.

The move, which obliges all citizens to know the Ukrainian language and makes it a mandatory requirement for civil servants, soldiers, doctors, and teachers, was championed by outgoing President Petro Poroshenko who needs to sign it into law before it takes effect, something he is expected to do.

Language became a much more sensitive issue in Ukraine, where many people speak both Ukrainian and Russian fluently, after Russia annexed Crimea and backed a pro-Russian separatist uprising in eastern Ukraine in 2014.

Poroshenko, who is due to step down soon after actor Volodymyr Zelenskiy trounced him at the ballot box on Sunday, put promotion of the Ukrainian language at the heart of his unsuccessful re-election campaign.

But Zelenskiy, who himself speaks Russian more frequently than Ukrainian, has said he wants to unite rather than divide the country and has said he has questions about the new law.

The new legislation requires TV and film distribution firms to ensure 90 percent of their content is in Ukrainian and for the proportion of Ukrainian-language printed media and books to be at least 50 percent.

Computer software must also have a Ukrainian-language interface although the law also allows the use of English or any other official language of the European Union.

Lawmakers cheered and rose to a standing ovation after the law was passed and sang the national anthem. Hundreds of people waving Ukrainian flags had gathered outside parliament to support the law.

“This is a historic moment, which Ukrainians have been waiting for centuries, because for centuries Ukrainians have tried to achieve the right to their own language,” one of the authors of the bill, Mykola Knyazhytsky, said before the vote.

The make-up of the parliament has not changed since Zelenskiy’s election win and remains dominated by a coalition supportive of Poroshenko.

Poroshenko had originally thought the language law would be approved before the election and would help boost his support, particularly in western regions where the Ukrainian language is predominantly used.

Its approval is potentially awkward for incoming president Zelenskiy, a comedian with no political experience.

Zelenskiy’s stance on the new law is unclear. He said during the campaign he’d do everything to protect and develop the Ukrainian language, but also that he had questions about the new legislation.

In 2012, clashes between riot police and protesters erupted in Kiev after Ukraine’s parliament approved a law that made Russian an official language.

Ukraine also has Romanian, Polish and Hungarian minorities that speak these languages. Last year, its relations with neighboring Hungary soured after parliament passed a law that banned teaching in minority languages beyond primary school level.

A survey conducted by the Kiev International Institute of Sociology showed that the Ukrainian language is used by 32.4 percent of Ukrainian families, while Russian is used by 15.8 percent. About a quarter of Ukrainians use both languages.</s>Deputies in Ukraine have backed a Bill to strengthen Ukrainian as its state language, prompting warnings from Moscow that the move could deepen a Kremlin-fomented conflict in the country’s mostly Russian-speaking east.

The Kiev parliament overwhelmingly approved the language Bill, a day after Russia angered Ukraine and its western allies by offering fast-track citizenship to Ukrainians living in areas of the Donbas region held by Moscow-led separatists.

Ukraine’s outgoing president Petro Poroshenko said he would sign into law provisions to make Ukrainian the compulsory language for people doing a wide range of jobs, including state officials, doctors, lawyers and military officers. The new law will also increase the amount of Ukrainian used in the country’s media.

“The Ukrainian language is a symbol of our people, our state and our nation. . . This is another crucial step towards our mental independence,” said Mr Poroshenko, who will be replaced in the coming weeks by last Sunday’s election winner Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“Respect for the rights of people who speak Russian and other languages is also important – it is a European practice which we will adhere to strictly.”

Language has been a hot-button issue since the 2014 Maidan revolution, when Ukraine pivoted to the West and set about strengthening its own national culture and identity after centuries of Russian domination.

The Kremlin portrayed Ukraine’s post-Maidan authorities as a threat to the country’s millions of Russian speakers, and claimed to be protecting Crimea’s ethnic Russians from “fascists” when it annexed the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014.

Moscow used the same rhetoric in backing separatist militants in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where it initiated and still fuels a conflict that has now claimed some 13,000 lives and displaced about 1.6 million people.

“In essence, it is a law on forced Ukrainianisation . . . providing for significant restrictions and, in many cases, a direct ban on the use of Russian and languages of national minorities in various spheres of public life,” said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Leading Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev called Ukraine’s language policy “phenomenal idiocy . . . which could lead to Ukraine losing its southeast”, where Russian is very widely used.

On Monday, senior Kremlin aide Vladislav Surkov said the offer of passports to people living in militant-controlled areas of Donbas was “Russia’s duty to people who speak and think in Russian, who are now in a very tough situation due to the repressive actions of the Kiev regime”.

Moscow’s move was condemned by the United States and the European Union, and seen as an indication that Russian president Vladimir Putin wants to make life immediately uncomfortable for incoming Ukrainian leader Mr Zelenskiy, a popular comedian and political novice.

Mr Putin said on Thursday that the future of Ukrainian-Russian relations depended on Mr Zelenskiy’s actions, while adding: “We want and are ready to re-establish our relations in full, but cannot do it in a one-sided way.”

Mr Zelenskiy, who speaks better Russian than Ukrainian, vowed there would be “no compromise” over Ukrainian being the country’s sole state language, but said he preferred to promote it through “positive examples rather than bans and punishments”.</s>(Bloomberg) -- Lawmakers approved a bill that boosts the use of Ukrainian as the official language in the media and by state and local authorities.

While Ukrainian has been the sole official language since 2014 when Kremlin-backed then President Viktor Yanukovych was toppled in deadly street protests, much of the population still speaks Russian. Moscow annexed Ukraine’s Crimea in 2014, saying it did so to protect ethnic Russians and Russian speakers. Russia offered on Wednesday its citizenship to separatists in two of Ukraine’s easternmost regions.

Out of 450 lawmakers, 278 backed the measure in the final Thursday reading. Outgoing President Petro Poroshenko has already said he will sign it into law.

To contact the reporter on this story: Daryna Krasnolutska in Kiev at dkrasnolutsk@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Balazs Penz at bpenz@bloomberg.net, Andrea Dudik, Andras Gergely</s>Russia has condemned a new Ukrainian language law that enforces the use of Ukrainian over Russian in the public sphere. Ukraine has a sizable Russian-speaking minority, residing mostly in the country's east, which is controlled by Moscow-backed rebels. For its part, Russia has angered Ukraine by making it easier for the residents of breakaway regions in eastern Ukraine to obtain a Russian passport. VOA's Zlatica Hoke reports.</s>Deputies in Ukraine have backed a Bill to strengthen Ukrainian as its state language, prompting warnings from Moscow that the move could deepen a Kremlin-fomented conflict in the country’s mostly Russian-speaking east.

The Kiev parliament overwhelmingly approved the language Bill, a day after Russia angered Ukraine and its western allies by offering fast-track citizenship to Ukrainians living in areas of the Donbas region held by Moscow-led separatists.

Ukraine’s outgoing president Petro Poroshenko said he would sign into law provisions to make Ukrainian the compulsory language for people doing a wide range of jobs, including state officials, doctors, lawyers and military officers. The new law will also increase the amount of Ukrainian used in the country’s media.

“The Ukrainian language is a symbol of our people, our state and our nation. . . This is another crucial step towards our mental independence,” said Mr Poroshenko, who will be replaced in the coming weeks by last Sunday’s election winner Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

“Respect for the rights of people who speak Russian and other languages is also important – it is a European practice which we will adhere to strictly.”

Language has been a hot-button issue since the 2014 Maidan revolution, when Ukraine pivoted to the West and set about strengthening its own national culture and identity after centuries of Russian domination.

The Kremlin portrayed Ukraine’s post-Maidan authorities as a threat to the country’s millions of Russian speakers, and claimed to be protecting Crimea’s ethnic Russians from “fascists” when it annexed the Black Sea peninsula in March 2014.

Moscow used the same rhetoric in backing separatist militants in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, where it initiated and still fuels a conflict that has now claimed some 13,000 lives and displaced about 1.6 million people.

“In essence, it is a law on forced Ukrainianisation . . . providing for significant restrictions and, in many cases, a direct ban on the use of Russian and languages of national minorities in various spheres of public life,” said Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

Leading Russian senator Konstantin Kosachev called Ukraine’s language policy “phenomenal idiocy . . . which could lead to Ukraine losing its southeast”, where Russian is very widely used.

On Monday, senior Kremlin aide Vladislav Surkov said the offer of passports to people living in militant-controlled areas of Donbas was “Russia’s duty to people who speak and think in Russian, who are now in a very tough situation due to the repressive actions of the Kiev regime”.

Moscow’s move was condemned by the United States and the European Union, and seen as an indication that Russian president Vladimir Putin wants to make life immediately uncomfortable for incoming Ukrainian leader Mr Zelenskiy, a popular comedian and political novice.

Mr Putin said on Thursday that the future of Ukrainian-Russian relations depended on Mr Zelenskiy’s actions, while adding: “We want and are ready to re-establish our relations in full, but cannot do it in a one-sided way.”

Mr Zelenskiy, who speaks better Russian than Ukrainian, vowed there would be “no compromise” over Ukrainian being the country’s sole state language, but said he preferred to promote it through “positive examples rather than bans and punishments”.</s>Ukrainian lawmakers have approved a language law that seeks to increase the use of Ukrainian in a country where Russian is also widely used.

The Supreme Rada on Thursday voted overwhelmingly to support the bill which will force increased use of Ukrainian in the media and in public administration.

The office of the U.N. Human Rights Commissioner as well as the Council of Europe has expressed its concern over the previous draft of the bill, saying that it could infringe the rights of language minorities.

Most Ukrainians switch between Ukrainian and Russian effortlessly but generations of Ukrainian politicians have exploited and encouraged the language divide in this country of 45 million.

The language issue became a major point of discontent in 2014 when separatists took control of parts of eastern Ukraine after Russian officials and media fanned fears that the new pro-Western government in Kyiv would be forcing the Ukrainian language on the residents in that predominantly Russian-speaking region.

The language bill was passed a day after the Kremlin said that it would be offering fast-track Russian citizenship to Ukrainians living in the areas under separatist control. President Vladimir Putin on Thursday defended his decision, saying it will help people stranded in areas where Ukrainian government services are not available.

Ukraine’s president-elect Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a Russian speaker who won a whopping 73% of the vote, including in the Ukrainian-speaking west of the country, came out with mild criticism of the bill.

In a statement posted on Facebook, he lamented that the bill “was adopted without a prior broad discussion with the public” and vowed to look into the law once it is officially published to make sure that “all constitutional rights and interests of all Ukrainian citizens are respected.”

Outgoing President Petro Poroshenko who stays in office until next month has rejected the criticism and said he would sign it into law.</s>KIEV: Russia on Thursday (Apr 25) slammed as "scandalous" a move by Ukraine to reduce the use of the Russian language, pushing up already high tensions days after Ukraine elected a new president.

The reaction came hours after Ukraine's parliament approved a controversial law to enhance the status of the Ukrainian language at the expense of Russian, in a move likely to rile eastern areas of the country controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.

The measure increases the quota for Ukrainian-language television and radio programming and obliges all Ukrainians to speak Ukrainian, making it mandatory for civil servants, doctors, teachers and lawyers under the threat of fines.

Most of Ukraine, once part of the former Soviet Union, can speak Russian, which is closely related to Ukrainian. But use of Russian has become highly politicised after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and backed the separatist uprising in the east.

Outgoing President Petro Poroshenko on Twitter called the new law a "historic event".

But his successor Volodymyr Zelensky, a popular, Russian-speaking comic actor who beat him in a run-off election last Sunday despite having no political experience beyond playing the president on television, vowed to review the law once he takes office in two months' time.

"After I take up the position of president, there will be a thorough analysis of this law," he said in a statement.

Russia expressed its outrage at the legislated rollback of its linguistic influence.

"It is a scandalous law, there's nothing else to call it," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The decision would "only deepen the split in Ukrainian society and further remove the possibility of bringing an end to the ongoing Ukraine crisis," she added.

That objection, however, was expressed one day after Russia made it easier for people living in eastern Ukraine's separatist territories to obtain Russian passports - a move roundly condemned by Kiev and its Western allies.

According to the draft law, denigration or "neglect" of Ukrainian will be deemed a criminal offence and language inspectors will hunt down violations.

But fines will not be applied for the first three years, while centres are set up around the country to support the learning of the Ukrainian language.

The east and south of Ukraine are primarily Russian speaking. Ukraine also has sizeable ethnic Hungarian and Romanian minorities in the west of the country.

Poroshenko compared the adoption of the law to the regeneration of the army and the creation of a unified Ukrainian Orthodox church - another move that riled Russia.

But analysts said it poses a challenge for Zelensky, who often speaks Russian at public events.

Political expert Anatoliy Oktsysyuk said Zelensky has so far played a "balancing act" on the issue but "now he will need to decide: either he is for or against it".

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not congratulated Zelensky on his election win but on Thursday said he was ready to restore full relations with Kiev following the vote.

"We want and we are ready to fully restore relations with Ukraine. But we cannot do this unilaterally," he told journalists following a summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un in Vladivostok.

Putin defended the decree he signed Wednesday making it easier for residents of Ukraine's separatist territories to obtain Russian passports, saying it was of "humanitarian character".

The decree is aimed at people living in the unrecognised Donetsk and Lugansk republics that broke away from Kiev in 2014 and are governed by Moscow-backed rebels.

Zelensky called for more international sanctions on Russia in response to the passport decree and the European Union called it a fresh attack on Ukrainian sovereignty.

Officials in Kiev said the timing of the decree was aimed at destabilising Ukraine during a period of transition and the Kremlin was testing political novice Zelensky.

The EU also condemned the move, saying it violated the Minsk agreements aimed at ending the conflict in the east.</s>KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine’s parliament approved a law on Thursday that grants special status to the Ukrainian language and makes it mandatory for public sector workers, a move Russia described as divisive and said discriminated against Russian-speakers.

The law, which obliges all citizens to know the Ukrainian language and makes it a mandatory requirement for civil servants, soldiers, doctors, and teachers, was championed by outgoing President Petro Poroshenko.

He is expected to sign it into law before he leaves office in coming weeks after losing re-election on Sunday to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, an actor who mainly speaks Russian in public.

Ukrainian is the predominant language in western Ukraine, while Russian is predominant in much of the east. Both languages are spoken widely in the capital Kiev, and a large proportion of the population speaks both fluently.

Television is often bi-lingual, with talk show hosts and their guests slipping between the two languages, sometimes asking questions in one and answering them in another.

Language has become a much more sensitive issue since 2014, when a pro-Russian president was toppled in a popular revolt and Russia responded by annexing the Crimea region and backing a pro-Russian separatist uprising in the east.

The separatists argued in part that easterners were victims of growing discrimination against Russian-speakers. Some Ukrainian-speakers argue that the prominence of Russian is a legacy of the Soviet era that undermines Ukraine’s identity.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order simplifying the procedure for obtaining a Russian passport for residents of eastern Ukraine’s rebellious regions, prompting calls from Kiev for more international sanctions.

Poroshenko put promotion of the Ukrainian language at the heart of his unsuccessful re-election campaign.

Zelenskiy, who played a schoolteacher-turned-president in a Russian-language comedy series on Ukrainian TV before launching his political career, said on Thursday his team would examine the new law to see if the rights of all citizens were respected.

“We must initiate and adopt laws and decisions that consolidate society, and not vice versa,” he wrote on Facebook.

Zelenskiy said the draft law’s origins during the electoral cycle “made it hostage to political rhetoric”, adding that it was hard to predict the consequences of adopting the law.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the new law would deepen divisions within Ukrainian society and impose severe limitations, including in some cases bans, on the use of Russian in Ukrainian public life.

Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent figure in Ukraine’s Russia-friendly opposition, said it violated the constitutional rights of millions of Ukrainian Russian-speakers.

The new legislation requires TV and film distribution firms to ensure 90 percent of their content is in Ukrainian and for the proportion of Ukrainian-language printed media and books to be at least 50 percent.

Computer software must also have a Ukrainian-language interface although the law also allows the use of English or any other official language of the European Union.

Lawmakers gave a standing ovation after the law was passed and sang the national anthem. Hundreds of people with Ukrainian flags had gathered outside parliament to support the law.

“This is a historic moment, which Ukrainians have been awaiting for centuries, because for centuries Ukrainians have tried to achieve the right to their own language,” one of the authors of the bill, Mykola Knyazhytsky, said before the vote.

The make-up of the parliament has not changed since Zelenskiy’s election win and remains dominated by a coalition supportive of Poroshenko.</s>Russia on Thursday slammed as "scandalous" a move by Ukraine to reduce the use of the Russian language, pushing up already high tensions days after Ukraine elected a new president.

The reaction came hours after Ukraine's parliament approved a controversial law to enhance the status of the Ukrainian language at the expense of Russian, in a move likely to rile eastern areas of the country controlled by Moscow-backed separatists.

The measure increases the quota for Ukrainian-language television and radio programming and obliges all Ukrainians to speak Ukrainian, making it mandatory for civil servants, doctors, teachers and lawyers under the threat of fines.

Most of Ukraine, once part of the former Soviet Union, can speak Russian, which is closely related to Ukrainian. But use of Russian has become highly politicised after Moscow annexed Crimea in 2014 and backed the separatist uprising in the east.

Outgoing President Petro Poroshenko on Twitter called the new law a "historic event".

But his successor Volodymyr Zelensky, a popular, Russian-speaking comic actor who beat him in a run-off election last Sunday despite having no political experience beyond playing the president on television, vowed to review the law once he takes office in two months' time.

"After I take up the position of president, there will be a thorough analysis of this law," he said in a statement.

Russia expressed its outrage at the legislated rollback of its linguistic influence.

"It is a scandalous law, there's nothing else to call it," Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.

The decision would "only deepen the split in Ukrainian society and further remove the possibility of bringing an end to the ongoing Ukraine crisis," she added.

That objection, however, was expressed one day after Russia made it easier for people living in eastern Ukraine's separatist territories to obtain Russian passports -- a move roundly condemned by Kiev and its Western allies.

According to the draft law, denigration or "neglect" of Ukrainian will be deemed a criminal offence and language inspectors will hunt down violations.

But fines will not be applied for the first three years, while centres are set up around the country to support the learning of the Ukrainian language.

The east and south of Ukraine are primarily Russian speaking. Ukraine also has sizeable ethnic Hungarian and Romanian minorities in the west of the country.

Poroshenko compared the adoption of the law to the regeneration of the army and the creation of a unified Ukrainian Orthodox church -- another move that riled Russia.

But analysts said it poses a challenge for Zelensky, who often speaks Russian at public events.

Political expert Anatoliy Oktsysyuk said Zelensky has so far played a "balancing act" on the issue but "now he will need to decide: either he is for or against it".

Russian President Vladimir Putin has not congratulated Zelensky on his election win but on Thursday said he was ready to restore full relations with Kiev following the vote.

"We want and we are ready to fully restore relations with Ukraine. But we cannot do this unilaterally," he told journalists following a summit with North Korea's Kim Jong Un in Vladivostok.

Putin defended the decree he signed Wednesday making it easier for residents of Ukraine's separatist territories to obtain Russian passports, saying it was of "humanitarian character".

The decree is aimed at people living in the unrecognised Donetsk and Lugansk republics that broke away from Kiev in 2014 and are governed by Moscow-backed rebels.

Zelensky called for more international sanctions on Russia in response to the passport decree and the European Union called it a fresh attack on Ukrainian sovereignty.

Officials in Kiev said the timing of the decree was aimed at destabilising Ukraine during a period of transition and the Kremlin was testing political novice Zelensky.

The EU also condemned the move, saying it violated the Minsk agreements aimed at ending the conflict in the east.</s>KIEV, April 25 (Reuters) - Ukraine's parliament approved a law on Thursday that grants special status to the Ukrainian language and makes it mandatory for public sector workers, a move Russia described as divisive and said discriminated against Russian-speakers.

The law, which obliges all citizens to know the Ukrainian language and makes it a mandatory requirement for civil servants, soldiers, doctors, and teachers, was championed by outgoing President Petro Poroshenko.

He is expected to sign it into law before he leaves office in coming weeks after losing re-election on Sunday to Volodymyr Zelenskiy, an actor who mainly speaks Russian in public.

Ukrainian is the predominant language in western Ukraine, while Russian is predominant in much of the east. Both languages are spoken widely in the capital Kiev, and a large proportion of the population speaks both fluently.

Television is often bi-lingual, with talk show hosts and their guests slipping between the two languages, sometimes asking questions in one and answering them in another.

Language has become a much more sensitive issue since 2014, when a pro-Russian president was toppled in a popular revolt and Russia responded by annexing the Crimea region and backing a pro-Russian separatist uprising in the east.

The separatists argued in part that easterners were victims of growing discrimination against Russian-speakers. Some Ukrainian-speakers argue that the prominence of Russian is a legacy of the Soviet era that undermines Ukraine's identity.

On Wednesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an order simplifying the procedure for obtaining a Russian passport for residents of eastern Ukraine's rebellious regions, prompting calls from Kiev for more international sanctions.

Poroshenko put promotion of the Ukrainian language at the heart of his unsuccessful re-election campaign.

Zelenskiy, who played a schoolteacher-turned-president in a Russian-language comedy series on Ukrainian TV before launching his political career, said on Thursday his team would examine the new law to see if the rights of all citizens were respected.

"We must initiate and adopt laws and decisions that consolidate society, and not vice versa," he wrote on Facebook.

Zelenskiy said the draft law's origins during the electoral cycle "made it hostage to political rhetoric," adding that it was hard to predict the consequences of adopting the law.

Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the new law would deepen divisions within Ukrainian society and impose severe limitations, including in some cases bans, on the use of Russian in Ukrainian public life.

Viktor Medvedchuk, a prominent figure in Ukraine's Russia-friendly opposition, said it violated the constitutional rights of millions of Ukrainian Russian-speakers.

The new legislation requires TV and film distribution firms to ensure 90 percent of their content is in Ukrainian and for the proportion of Ukrainian-language printed media and books to be at least 50 percent.

Computer software must also have a Ukrainian-language interface although the law also allows the use of English or any other official language of the European Union.

Lawmakers gave a standing ovation after the law was passed and sang the national anthem. Hundreds of people with Ukrainian flags had gathered outside parliament to support the law.

"This is a historic moment, which Ukrainians have been awaiting for centuries, because for centuries Ukrainians have tried to achieve the right to their own language," one of the authors of the bill, Mykola Knyazhytsky, said before the vote.

The make-up of the parliament has not changed since Zelenskiy's election win and remains dominated by a coalition supportive of Poroshenko. (Additional reporting by Andrew Osborn; Editing by Matthias Williams, Alison Williams and Peter Graff)
The parliament of Ukraine passes a language law in a vote of 278 to 38 that will secure the use of Ukrainian as the country's only official language.