Russian was acknowledged as regional language in Kharkiv

 

The decision was rendered to create the conditions for the realization of constitutional guarantees for the development and employment of regional language and, also, to contribute the development of historic, ethnic and language traditions of citizens who make the majority of Kharkiv. The document was ratified within the Law of Ukraine «About the bases of state language policy».

 

Deputies resolved that Russian language will be used as the second language in workflow management of the local government bodies, in the names of institutions, on the plate-marks, on official letterforms and in a row of other official cases.

 

Kharkiv city mayor appealed for the audience in the session hall. He asked not to turn the language question into a political issue. He marked that the representatives of more than 100 nationalities live in Kharkiv and that the number of Russian speaking citizens makes more than 60%.

 

Gennadiy Kernes emphasized that Ukrainian is still the official language in the region. The introduction of Russian as a regional language will allow to realize the interests of Russian speaking Kharkiv citizens.

 

76 out of 80 registered deputies voted positively for the question.