A Tale of Two Ukrianes

Now Online: A Tale of Two Ukraines

By: Olga Adamczyk

On Friday, August 10th 2012, the parliamentary journal “Voice of Ukraine” published an announcement stating that Russian is now the second official language in Ukraine. The act concerning the status of Russian language arouses a lot of controversy and has been causing protest in the western part of the country.

Although the act does not concern only the Russian language, it is obvious that this change has influence especially on the Russian-speaking part of Ukraine. According to new law, regions where over ten per cent of the population speaks a minority language, it can become official. Next to Russian, which is dominant in 13 of 27 regions, official status will also begin to Hungarian in Zakarpattia and Romanian in Bukovina.

The new law has been very controversial. President Viktor Yanukovych and his ruling Party of Regions have been pursuing this type of legislation since their electoral victory in 2010. Until now, most had written it off as just talk. Today, when another election is on the horizon, Yanukovych decided to fight for the Russian-speaking voters. 

To read the full article online along with pictures of a protest in Lviv please visit: https://www.neweasterneurope.eu/node/415