Kiev has embarked on a full-scale “Ukrainization” campaign as new legislation allows the government to ban the Russian language and culture more comprehensively throughout the country, a senior official has said.

In an interview with Ukrainskaya Pravda on Thursday, Taras Kremen, who serves as Ukraine’s commissioner for the protection of the state language, hailed what he called the government’s strides in its long-running campaign to eradicate the Russian language from all public spheres of life. The official recalled that Kiev’s legislation has gradually made Ukrainian compulsory in education and culture.

“Now, I see nothing but fervent Ukrainization, which has replaced a gentle one,” he stressed, adding that the term implies “strict control over compliance with the language law in all spheres of public life on the territory of Ukraine.”

Kremen noted that Kiev could now put pressure on individual media and service sectors in the language sphere due to legal changes.

RT