Ukrainian President supports replacing Russian with English on all passports

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko supports an online petition to remove the Russian language from the country's internal passports (which are used as government-issued identification). The petition, which appeared on the government's website in late August, now has nearly 30,000 signatures. It calls for replacing Russian with English.

"Given the patriotic position of the signatories, as well as the desire of Ukrainian society to integrate into the European Union, I consider it necessary to replace the information in Ukrainian citizens' passports now printed in Russian with language written in English as the language of international communication," Poroshenko said.

Poroshenko instructed his government to "ensure the introduction of legislative amendments" that would replace Russian with English on the nation's passports.

I share the indignation of my fellow Ukrainian citizens concerning the printing on our passports of information in a language of a state that, as the Verkhovna Rada has acknowledged, carries out aggression against Ukraine.

According to Ukrainian law, any petitions to the government that collect more than 25,000 signatures must be considered by the President.

On November 17, according to the news agency UNIAN, Poroshenko declared 2016 to be the Year of English in Ukraine. According the executive order, the decision was made "to expand the public's access to global economic, social, educational, and cultural opportunities, which are made available by knowledge of and fluency in the English language." Poroshenko also argued that a better grasp of English will help Ukraine integrate into "Europe's political, economic, and scientific-educational space."