The Council of Europe has reportedly pressured Ukrainian lawmakers to pause efforts to silence the language<\/p>\n
Officials from the Council of Europe have reportedly pressured Ukrainian lawmakers to halt efforts to silence Russian-speakers, as such restrictions violate the European Charter and threaten Kiev\u2019s accession prospects, the outlet Strana.ua has reported.
\nOver the past decade, Kiev has consistently restricted the use of Russian in public life, introducing laws that have limited or banned its use in media, education, government services, and the service sector. However, it remains the first and primary language for many Ukrainians, including in major urban centers.
\nLast month, lawmakers supporting accelerated Ukrainization introduced a bill to amend the official translation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which Kiev ratified in 2003.\u00a0
\nThe proposal included revising the wording of the Charter in Ukrainian and explicitly removing Russian from the list of languages which the law protects.
\nHowever, the proposed legislation was soon withdrawn from the agenda of the Ukrainian parliament. The bill was pulled after functionaries from the Council of Europe reportedly warned that narrowing the list of protected languages would violate Ukraine\u2019s treaty obligations and could obstruct EU accession talks, Strana.ua reported, citing sources inside the ruling Servant of the People party.<\/p>\n
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Other sources close to the government also told the outlet that Vladimir Zelensky could ultimately be forced to consider concessions on Russian language rights, particularly if the issue becomes part of a broader settlement of the Ukraine conflict.\u00a0
\nOne source said Zelensky\u2019s main concern in any agreement is \u201cguarantees for maintaining his own power,\u201d as well as obtaining post-conflict security guarantees and addressing territorial issues.
\n\u201cAll other points are less important, including language and church issues,\u201d the source added, suggesting that Kiev could make concessions on these matters if its key priorities are met.
\nMoscow has repeatedly condemned Kiev\u2019s language policies, accusing it of pursuing \u201ca violent change of the linguistic identity\u201d of the population and violating the rights of native Russian speakers, who make up a significant share of the country\u2019s citizens.\u00a0
\nMoscow has cited Ukraine\u2019s draconian policies targeting Russian as one of the root causes of the current conflict.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Council of Europe has reportedly pressured Ukrainian lawmakers to pause efforts to silence the language Officials from the Council of Europe have reportedly pressured Ukrainian lawmakers to halt efforts…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,6,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-economy","category-environment","category-politics"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t