A 2012 law, called the law “On the principles of the State language policy” gave the status of regional language to Russian and other minority languages. It allowed the use of minority languages in courts, schools and other government institutions in areas of Ukraine where the national minorities exceed 10% of the population.
The law was used mostly in Ukraine’s southern and eastern regions, where predominant or significant parts of the population speak Russian as their first language. Three minor settlements did the same for Hungarian, Moldovan and Romanian. Ukrainian remained the only official country-wide language.
Introduction of the law was supported by the governing Party of regions and opposed by the opposition parties. According to its opponents, the law undermined and supplanted the role of the Ukrainian language, and violated Article 10 of the Ukrainian Constitution. (en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constitution_of_Ukraine)
The bill was adopted amid fistfights in the Ukrainian Parliament building on 3 July 2012, and the opposition said that the procedure of adopting the law was not respected. The law came into force on 10 August 2012. Since then various cities and regions of Ukraine declared Russian a regional language in their jurisdictions. Other cities and regions declared their opposition to this law.
Immediately after the 2014 Ukrainian revolution, on 23 February 2014, the Ukrainian Parliament voted to repeal the law. This decision was vetoed by the acting President Oleksandr Turchynov, who instead ordered drafting of a new law to “accommodate the interests of both eastern and western Ukraine and of all ethnic groups and minorities.”
However, in October 2014 the Constitutional Court of Ukraine started reviewing the constitutionality of the law, and on 28 February 2018 it ruled the law unconstitutional.In April 2019, the Ukrainian parliament voted a new law, the Law of Ukraine “to ensure the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the State language”. On 16 June 2019, the law entered into force.
The law made the use of Ukrainian compulsory (totally or within certain quotas) in the work of some public authorities, in the electoral procedures and political campaigning, in pre-school, school and university education, in scientific, cultural and sporting activities, in book publishing and book distribution, in printed mass media, television and radio broadcasting, in economic and social life (commercial advertising, public events), in hospitals and nursing homes, and in the activities of political parties and other legal entities (e.g. non-governmental organizations) registered in Ukraine.
