All Ukrainian, all the time

last updated 8 January 2015

Kiev, Ukraine

Ukrainian television will ban Russian and other foreign languages on the air starting next year, the state broadcasting agency said last week. The move is part of an effort to force ethnic Russians, who make up the majority in Ukraine’s eastern provinces, to learn Ukrainian. Russian-language shows currently predominate on Ukrainian TV and radio, both because half of Ukrainians speak Russian as a first language and because most of the good shows are produced in Russia. Those programs will have to be dubbed into Ukrainian, the agency said, although they can add Russian subtitles.