Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko promulgated yesterday the controversial education law, which restricts teaching in the language of national minorities, reports local News.ro.

The bill was adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament at the beginning of September. This will affect the Romanian minorities living in Ukraine, who won’t be able to use the Romanian language in schools anymore. Over 400,000 ethnic Romanians live in Ukraine, according to Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

The law provides the gradual introduction of the new system. The school subjects taught in Romanian will be gradually replaced with school subjects taught in Ukrainian. The reform’s first stage will take place on September 1, 2018.

Last week, Romanian president Klaus Iohannis protested this law by cancelling his visit to Ukraine. He also refused to receive the Ukrainian Parliament’s president at the Cotroceni Palace during a visit to Bucharest at the end of September.

editor@romania-insider.com

(photo source: President.gov.ua)