Law on state language in effect

The law on Ukraine’s state language came into force on July 16, two months after former President Petro Poroshenko endorsed it days before leaving office. The Law on Securing Ukrainian Language as the State Language declares Ukrainian “the only official state language in Ukraine.” It says “attempts” to introduce other languages as the state language would be considered attempts to “forcibly change the constitutional order.” The new law defines what it calls the “public humiliation of the Ukrainian language” as a punishable offense under the country’s Criminal Code.