Yuschenko denies discrimination against Russian speakers (11/05/00)

Yuschenko denies discrimination against Russian speakers

by Jan Maksymiuk
RFE/RL Poland, Belarus and Ukraine Report

Prime Minister Viktor Yuschenko told the October 24 issue of Stolichnye Novosti that there is no "mass Ukrainianization of the population" in Ukraine. Mr. Yuschenko cited official data testifying to the fact that the use of the Russian language is being freely encouraged in the country's educational and cultural spheres.

Mr. Yuschenko said Ukraine has 2,561 general education schools in which instruction takes place in Russian: those schools are attended by 2.3 million children, or 34.1 percent of the total number of the country's students. In addition, 1.8 million schoolchildren (26.6 percent) learn Russian as a subject at Ukrainian-language schools.

Some 35 percent of students at Ukrainian universities and colleges receive instruction in Russian. In Crimea, all higher educational institutions offer instruction only in Russian; the percentage of Russian-language higher-educational institutions is also high in Ukraine's eastern and southern regions: Donetsk Oblast (89.3 percent), Luhansk Oblast (85.6 percent), Odesa Oblast (49.8), and Kharkiv Oblast (41.9 percent).

Of the some 800 titles in Ukraine's catalogue of periodicals, 50 percent are published in Ukrainian and 25 percent in Russian; 25 percent are bilingual. In the country's eastern and southern regions, 30 to 50 percent of state television and radio broadcasts are in Russian. According to the prime minister in some regions non-state broadcasting companies provide coverage that is 70-90 percent in Russian.

Mr. Yuschenko also told the newspaper that Ukraine has 30 Russian-language theaters and 36 that stage plays in both Ukrainian and Russian.

Commenting on the state policy of promoting the Ukrainian language, which is often criticized by Russian circles in Ukraine and some Russian politicians in Moscow, Mr. Yuschenko said: "One needs to understand our natural desire to pay more attention to the Ukrainian language, insofar as its use was artificially limited in Ukraine for a long time. Now, you must agree, there is the problem of the Ukrainian language. ... It is impossible to force somebody to like a language. ... It is necessary to create incentives for a wider use of the official language, to make it prestigious."

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