President orders to strengthen role of Ukrainian language

KIEV, May 31 (Xinhua) -- Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has signed a decree to strengthen the role of the Ukrainian language, the presidential press service said Thursday in a statement.

"Staring from 2018 we are launching the decade of the Ukrainian language -- we will do our utmost to protect the language," Poroshenko said in the statement.

According to the statement, the decree stipulates that in the next decade, the government will carry out a series of measures aimed at ensuring the comprehensive development and functioning of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life.

The decree also envisages the creation of conditions for ensuring the citizens' rights to receive information in Ukrainian, including through mass media and advertising, the statement said.

In the meantime, the decree lays legal grounds for the protection of the rights of the country's minorities, whose mother tongue is not Ukrainian, it said.

According to various surveys, about 65 to 70 percent of Ukrainians consider Ukrainian as their first language. Enditem