Commissioner for Protection of State Language Taras KREMIN held a regular meeting with representatives of the OSCE SMM to Ukraine. With the leadership of the observer group of the OSCE SMM in Kyiv, the Commissioner discussed the implementation of the Law of Ukraine "On Ensuring the Functioning of Ukrainian as the State Language".

The parties discussed a wide range of issues related to the functioning of Ukrainian as the state language, in particular:

• theservice sector’s switching to Ukrainian since January 16, 2021;

• the need to adopt a state program for the development and acquisition of the state language and to create free courses to study Ukrainian;

• consideration by Constitutional Court of Ukraine of the case regarding the proposal of 51 people’s deputies of Ukraine on the constitutionality of the Law of Ukraine "On Ensuring the Functioning of Ukrainian as the State Language";

• testing for the level of the state language proficiency which will be introduced since July 16, 2021.

Taras KREMIN specially touched upon the issue of violation of the language rights of Ukrainians residing in the occupied territories.

"Once again I would like to emphasize that citizens of Ukraine living in the annexed Crimea and in the temporarily occupied territories of Donetsk and Luhansk regions are criminally restricted in their rights to receive information and services in the Ukrainian language. Numerous violations were presented in the speeches of Ukrainian diplomats at the meetings of the United Nations Security Council, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, in appeals to the OSCE High Commissioner, etc.

One of such examples is the total prohibition of the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar languages in education. I’ve recently signed the Memorandum of Cooperation with the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights Lyudmyla DENYSOVA, so such an unsatisfactory situationregarding the provision of language rights in the occupied territories does not remain unaddressed", - Taras KREMIN pointed out.