Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Vasyl Bodnar has assured Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Péter Szijjártó that the law on the state language adopted by Ukraine's parliament does not restrict national minorities' rights.

"The Ukrainian diplomat informed him [Szijjártó] about the main provisions of the new law, assuring him that the new law does not limit the use of the language of national minorities, but on the contrary, guarantees the rights of national minorities to use the language of the respective national minorities and indigenous peoples," Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Kateryna Zelenko said at a briefing in Kyiv on Wednesday.

Zelenko said Ukraine continues to cooperate with Hungary and is ready for dialogue.

As reported, on April 25 the Verkhovna Rada adopted a law on the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language. By this law, the parliament extended until 2023 the opportunity for representatives of national minorities to receive secondary education in the language of the respective minorities with a gradual transition to the Ukrainian language.

According to the text of the document, persons who belong to the national minorities of Ukraine, whose languages are official in the European Union, and began to receive general secondary education before September 1, 2018, in the language of the respective national minorities, will continue until September 1, 2023, to receive such education according to the rules that existed before the entry into force of the law on education.

The current edition of the law on education provided for a transitional period in secondary education for national minorities and indigenous peoples until September 2020.