LVOV, July 11 (Itar-Tass) --The City Council of Nikolayev has won the litigation for the fight to use the Russian language in official documents.

The Odessa court of appeals has upheld the decision of the Nikolayev City Council to “give the status of regional language to Russian to the extent to which it is used by the city council and executive agencies in their work and in official documents together with the official Ukrainian language”.

The Nikolayev City Council on May 26 adopted a resolution granting Russian the status of a regional language and has been engaged in court litigations since then.

Similar litigations are underway in Odessa, Donbass and the Crimea.

The councils of different levels in the south and east of Ukraine have been providing funding in order to protect and support the Russian language spoken by a large portion of the population.

As a presidential election slated for January 17, 2010 nears, the preservation of the Russian language and its status as a second official language become increasingly relevant for leading centrist and left-wing parties and organisations in Ukraine.

Meanwhile, the editor-in-chief of the Krymskaya Pravda (Crimean Truth) newspaper, Konstantin Bakharev, said the Russian language is being more and more forced out of the information environment in Ukraine.

Electronic mass media – television and the radio -- are hit hardest. Pursuant to a new version of the Ukrainian Law “On Television and Radio Broadcasting”, broadcasts in Ukrainian should be at least 75 percent, compared to 50 percent before. “Violators” will not be granted licenses, and regional peculiarities are not taken into account.

The National Council on Television and Radio Broadcasting has obligated the Sevastopol television and radio company to increase its broadcasts in Ukraine to at least 75 percent of airtime form January 1, 2009, even though 93 percent of people living in the city speak Russian.

However, Ukrainian Foreign Ministry spokesman Vasily Kirilich believes that the problem of the Russian language in the country is far-fetched.

"I do not see any problems with the Russian language in Ukraine," he said after a visit to the country by OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities Knut Vollebaek earlier this year.

In Ukraine "every citizen speaks the language which he considers native or which he more comfortable for communication", Kirilich said.

"Where else in the world is there a parliament where deputies speak a foreign [Russian] language, except for the Ukrainian Verkhovna Rada?" he said.

He stressed the need "to speak about what Ukraine and Russia have in common rather then focus on what they have in difference".

"Our countries have very many common and generally positive things," Kirilich said.

Vollebaek studied the educational rights of ethnic Russians in Ukraine. During his trips to Kiev, the Crimea, the Donetsk and Lvov regions, Vollebaek visited educational institutions where teaching is conducted in Russian and meet with members of the Russian community, central and regional authorities.

Vollebaek is now expected to prepare a report with recommendations on how to ensure the educational rights of ethnic Russians in Ukraine. The document will be handed over to the Russian government.

Kirilich said the reports should be expected by autumn.

Ukraine does not have to account to anyone for its language policy, Culture and Tourism Minister Vasily Vovkun said.

"Our actions should be principled, consistent and offensive because they are based on the Constitution of Ukraine and national interests," Vovkun said.

The minister made it clear that "the development of an integral national language and cultural space based on the promotion of the Ukrainian language in all spheres of public life, on the presence of the national cultural product in proper volumes on the domestic market has been determined by the government as an important strategic objective. But the implementation of this strategic task envisages, among other things, the adoption and practical realisation of Ukraine's Language Policy Concept, the new Ukrainian law 'On the Official Language', and amendments to the Law on the Ratification of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages."

Having emphasised the need for strict compliance with language legislation in Ukraine, Vovkun expressed his readiness to "allow Russian-speaking residents of cities in the east and south of the country to learn the official language through language courses set up under cultural institutions, such as libraries, higher educational institutions, theatres, research and methodology centres."

However he did not specify whether it would be an operational or obligatory procedure for people living in regions that have been fighting for the quality of the Russian and Ukrainian languages for more than 20 years.

However Verkhovna Rada member Vadim Kolesnichnko said the rights of Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine were systematically violated.

"The Verkhovna Rada has adopted 43 laws that exclude the Russian language from our life," Kolesnichenko said.

"Over 3,000 schools have been destroyed" over the years of independence, he said.

Teaching in universities in 19 Ukrainian regions where half of the population speak Russian is conducted in Ukrainian. There are no Russian-language schools in six regions, and four regions each have only one.

According to the lawmaker, the Russian language has been barred from radio, television, films, and business. "The future of our children is not enviable" in such a situation, he added.

Newspapers and magazines can be published in Russian only if they “service the needs of ethnic minorities”. And if their circulation exceeds 50,000 copies, half of that amount will have to be printed in Ukrainian.

The chairman of the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, Igor Lubchenko, has strongly protested attempts to “Ukranise” the printed media.

The Ukrainian Association of Periodical Press Publishers supported his position. “Forced introduction of the Ukrainian language in printed media is disrespect, primarily for the readers who pay their own money to be able to read in the language they want,” the association said.