The law on secondary education in Ukraine, which was signed on the eve by President Vladimir Zelensky, infringes on the rights of Russian-speaking citizens of the country and should be repealed by the Constitutional Court. This was stated by the chairman of the party “Opposition platform - For life”, deputy of the Verkhovna Rada Viktor Medvedchuk. He said that he would appeal to the Constitutional Court with a demand to repeal the law.

“The signature of the President of Ukraine under the law“ On Complete General Secondary Education ”, which introduces a discriminatory norm regarding the language of education against Russian-speaking citizens, is a betrayal of the interests, hopes and aspirations of millions of Ukrainians who voted for Vladimir Zelensky in the second round.

This is yet another confirmation that there is no difference between the policies of Poroshenko and Zelensky, ”Medvedchuk’s appeal posted on his party’s website says.

The politician recalled that Zelensky in the second round of the presidential election was supported by millions of Russian-speaking citizens, whose interests he betrayed by signing this law.

"Dividing Ukrainians into several varieties (depending on what language they speak), dividing the country, Zelensky continues to follow the radicals' lead," said the leader of the Opposition Platform.

In his appeal, Medvedchuk described the move of Vladimir Zelensky as “cynicism of the highest standard” and recalled that this law violates at least five articles of the Constitution of Ukraine. In addition, the politician noted, the document was criticized by the EU Venice Commission and recommended Kiev to review it.

“We will appeal to the Constitutional Court with a demand to repeal this shameful nationalist law. We stood and will stand in defense of the rights and freedoms of citizens of Ukraine, including the right to speak and study in our native language, ”says Medvedchuk.

Educational discrimination

Recall that the law "On full secondary education" Vladimir Zelensky signed on March 13. This document, which the Rada adopted on January 16, as noted in the president’s office, “introduces practical tools that will help implement educational reform, founded in 2017.” The law provides for a gradual reduction in the teaching of subjects in languages ​​of national minorities, including Russian.

So, according to his provisions, it will be possible to study in Russian only in elementary school. Starting from the 5th grade, only 20% of subjects can be studied in Russian, and the remaining 80% of the classes will have to be conducted in Ukrainian.

At the same time, for national minorities speaking the languages ​​of the EU member states, a different distribution is provided for - from grade 5 at least 20% of the educational process should be conducted in Ukrainian, with a gradual increase in this indicator to 40% by grade 9. In high school, teaching in Ukrainian should account for at least 60% of the annual volume of teaching hours.

The law also provides for the possibility of learning in one’s own language along with a “thorough” study of Ukrainian. This rule applies to indigenous peoples who do not live in their own linguistic environment and "do not have a state that protects and develops this language."

Poroshenko's legacy

Since 2014, the Ukrainian authorities have consistently implemented a language policy aimed at the exclusion of Russian and other languages ​​from the country's public life. So, in 2017, Poroshenko signed the law "On Education", which provided for the transition of the entire learning process to the Ukrainian language by 2020.

  • Vladimir Zelensky
  • RIA News
  • © Alexey Vitvitsky

In 2019, Petro Poroshenko, at the end of his presidential term, also signed a law on the exclusive use of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life. This step was criticized in the Venice Commission of the Council of Europe - the organization’s experts said that this document could not balance the distribution of the Ukrainian language and the observance of the linguistic rights of minorities in the republic.

Neighboring countries have repeatedly expressed disagreement with such a policy of Kiev. These were mainly states whose language was spoken by the minorities living in Western Ukraine - Hungary, Poland, Romania and Slovakia. So, Hungary has repeatedly opposed laws that infringe on the rights of national minorities to use their language in educational institutions, government agencies and the media.

In particular, in order to force Ukraine to refuse to adopt laws that infringe on the rights of minorities, Hungary vetoed the joint statements of Ukraine and NATO, and also stated that it would impede the entry of Kiev into the alliance.

Zelensky’s team for a long time refrained from commenting on the language policy of the administration of Petro Poroshenko. After the election, the press service of the president-elect distributed a message stating that the law on the language would be “carefully analyzed” for compliance with the “constitutional rights and interests of all citizens of Ukraine.”

However, during this time, the Zelensky administration did not take any action in terms of revising the laws on education and the state language. In particular, without any changes in the law on education, there remained an article on the percentage of languages ​​in high school.

President of the Center for System Analysis and Forecasting Rostislav Ishchenko believes that the decision to sign this law will not add popularity to the Ukrainian leader.

“Today, Zelensky’s popularity among the population is declining because he promised to end the war and improve the socio-economic situation in the country. Even if he had not stopped the war, but had sharply improved the socio-economic situation, his ratings would have risen. But due to the fact that the situation in the country continues to deteriorate, its ratings are falling and will continue to fall, ”the political scientist said in a conversation with RT.

In turn, the leading RISI research fellow Oleg Nemensky in an interview with RT emphasized that Zelensky’s statements and actions were aimed at ensuring that these laws only formally comply with the Constitution.

“Zelensky has an even tougher policy towards the Russian-speaking population than Poroshenko, who decided to sign the language law in the last days of his presidency. Zelensky’s ratings go down, because the majority of Ukrainians, when they voted for him, did not listen, were not interested in what he was saying, but acted on the principle “just not for Poroshenko.”

Now they are forced to listen to the president and gradually began to realize that the position “just not for Poroshenko” was unreasonable, since it was impractical to change it for soap, ”the expert stated.