The party of new Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych will propose giving the Russian language official status at a regional level, Party of Regions deputy head Boris Kolesnikov said on Friday.
In line with the former Soviet republic's constitution, Ukrainian is the sole state language. However, during his election campaign, pro-Russian Yanukovych promised to give Russian, spoken by some 40% of the population as their first language, official status.
While the Party of Regions does not have enough MPs in parliament to force a change in the constitution, regional authorities will be given the choice to make Russian official in their respective areas, Kolesnikov told the Gazeta newspaper.
"Governed by the European charter on languages, we have prepared a very good law, and the president will present it in the next 15-20 days," he said.
"If some regions do not want to adopt it, they don't have to," he added.
Earlier this month, Ukraine's Constitutional Court overturned a government resolution prohibiting school teachers from speaking Russian at work.
KIEV, February 26 (RIA Novosti)
