Ukrainians want decentralization, not federalization - OSCE envoy
Personal Envoy of the Swiss OSCE Chairperson-in-Office on Ukraine Tim Guldimann has said that the language problem is not a serious political factor in Ukraine and added that Ukrainians are in favor of decentralization of power, rather than the federalization of the country.
"Language is not a political issue. The use of Ukrainian or Russian is not related to political positions," he said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.
Guldimann said that the cancellation by the Verkhovna Rada of the law on languages had really caused a certain negative reaction in the southeastern regions of Ukraine, but said that this decision had subsequently not entered into force.
He noted that, for example, there were a lot of Ukrainian-speaking citizens in Odesa region. He also said that when talking to people and asking them questions on this issue, as a rule, he got the answers that people, if necessary, switch from one language to another and choose themselves which schools to send their children to.
Guldimann said that OSCE representatives saw during their visits to Lviv, Odesa and Kherson that Ukrainian citizens want decentralization of power, but do not talk about Ukraine's federalization.
He said that the organization's monitoring mission should deal exclusively with monitoring and it has no tasks to solve existing problems. He also said the OSCE mission performed a certain stabilizing function and helped prevent the escalation of conflict processes that have recently occurred in Ukraine and Crimea.