Yatseniuk: Russian language will get official status

Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatseniuk, when considering amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine, will propose a provision according to which local councils can grant official status to Russian and other languages while maintaining the status of Ukrainian as a sole state language.

He said this in his Victory Day address released on the government portal on Thursday.

"As head of government, when considering amendments to the constitution, I will propose a provision according to which, while maintaining the status of Ukrainian as the sole state language, local councils will have the right to grant official status to Russian and other languages," Yatseniuk said.

However, he said that the language law of Kivalov-Kolesnichenko approved by Party of Regions and Communist Party MPs was currently in force. According to him, in the regions where most people speak Russian the Russian language has the legal status of a regional language.

"In fact, its rights and opportunities are actually the same as those of the state Ukrainian language," Yatseniuk said.