Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and Acting President Oleksandr

Turchynov has said that the local authorities will receive the powers

to decide on official languages in their respective areas, while

Ukrainian will be the state language across the country.

“To ensure peace and understanding among Ukrainian citizens,

regional, city and district councils will be granted the right to decide

about the provision in their respective areas of the official status to

Russian or other languages spoken by the majority of the local

population, which will be official languages [in respective localities] along with the state language – Ukrainian,” he said in an televised

speech on April 18.