Hundreds of people gathered in Ukraine's capital Kiev on Thursday to protest against a controversial new language law boosting the legal status of Russian.
The demonstrators outside the downtown Ukrainian House cultural center held banners reading "Shame on [President Viktor] Yanukovych's anti-Ukrainian policies," "Down with Moscow heels!"
The latest protest comes in the wake of clashes between protesters and police ahead of Yanukovych's speech at the Ukrainian House on Wednesday.
The new bill, drafted by Yanukovych's ruling Party of Regions and adopted by parliament on Tuesday, grants Russian, the mother tongue of most people in eastern and southern Ukraine, "regional language" status.
The party said on Thursday it would take legal action against Supreme Rada speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn if he refused to sign the bill off. Lytvyn and his deputy Mykola Tomenko announced their resignation over the bill on Wednesday.
"There are no [legal] norms that would allow a parliamentary speaker not to sign a bill which has been voted on by MPs," party leader Oleksandr Yefremov told journalists in Kiev.
While Ukrainian would remain the official state language, Russian could be used in courts, hospitals, schools and other state institutions in Russian-speaking areas. Regional language status would also be granted to other languages spoken in the former Soviet republic, including Bulgarian, Romanian and Hungarian.
Jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the bill’s passage is a challenge to the Ukrainian nation and urged her supporters to demonstrate in central Kiev.
“The shameful vote on July 3 for the so-called language bill in the Supreme Rada has shown that Yanukovych has declared war not only on the opposition, not only on democratic values, but also on Ukraine's independence as such,” she said.
“He has issued a challenge to the entire nation.”
In his 2010 election campaign, Yanukovych vowed to make Russian a second state language.
Opposition MPs have said Tuesday's vote was not on Rada's agenda and was held without debate on amendments.
Yanukovych's party insists the bill does not undermine Ukrainian, but critics say it is aimed at deepening the friction between Ukrainian and Russian speakers ahead of parliamentary elections in October.
