Language bill ignites clashes in Kyiv
Police fired tear gas and used batons to disperse hundreds of protesters in Kyiv on Wednesday after parliament voted to make Russian, rather than Ukrainian, the main language in schools and local government in some parts of the former Soviet republic.
The clashes occurred after protesters, led by opposition members of parliament defending the role of Ukrainian as the only state language, massed in front of a building where President Viktor Yanukovych was due to hold a press briefing. The chamber rushed the language bill through on Tuesday, minutes after a surprise proposal by a proYanukovych deputy, giving opponents little time to cast their vote and prompting scuffles both in parliament and on the streets.
Though the bill needs Yanukovych’s signature and that of parliament speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn – who has offered to quit – to become law, protesters took to the streets and stayed there overnight to bring pressure to bear on the president.
The row has galvanized Ukrainian opposition, weakened by the jailing of its leader, former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko, for seven years last October on abuse-of-office charges.
Tymoshenko faces separate tax evasion charges in a trial set to resume next Tuesday and will seek to have her initial conviction overturned in separate appeal hearings on July 12.
Ukraine kept her case largely out of sight when it co-hosted the Euro 2012 soccer tournament for three weeks in June, but Yanukovych has now returned to handling fractious relations with the West and domestic political divisions.