Photo: Efrem Lukatsky/AP
Kiev - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed decreedemanding action to protect the rights and freedoms of Ukrainians traditionally living in what is now Russia and to preserve their national identity. The document refers, for example, to the historic Kuban region in present-day southern Russia. Zelensky accused Moscow of having committed and continuing to commit actions over the centuries aimed at destroying Ukrainian national identity, oppressing Ukrainians and violating their rights and freedoms.
Zelensky said Moscow should provide members of the Ukrainian minority with the right to education in Ukrainian, access to media in Ukrainian and the right to peaceful assembly. Zelensky instructed the Ukrainian government to work with experts and the public to develop an action plan that would ensure the preservation of the national identity of Ukrainians living in Russia. The Ukrainian President also calls for the study of facts and the collection of testimonies about possible crimes committed against these Ukrainians, their forced Russification or the deportation of the Ukrainian population.
According to the Ukrainian president, the action plan should also focus on debunking the myths of Russian propaganda about Ukrainian history and the Ukrainian present or on creating materials mapping the more than 1,000-year history of the formation of the Ukrainian state.
Zelensky identified the regions traditionally inhabited by Ukrainians in Russia as the area of historic Kuban, which is linked to the history of the Ukrainian Cossacks, the area of historic Sloboda Ukraine and the area around the town of Starodub in today's Bryansk region of Russia. The regions traditionally inhabited by Ukrainians, according to Zelensky, lie in today's Bryansk, Belgorod, Voronezh, Kursk and Rostov regions and in today's Krasnodar Krai.
In addition, Zelensky today sent a bill to parliament that would allow the introduction of multiple citizenship. According to Reuters, there are currently millions of people of Ukrainian origin living abroad who cannot hold Ukrainian passports due to the lack of a dual citizenship law.
Ceskenoviny.cz/ČTK/gnews.cu/JaV_07
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