Former President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma (1994-2005) has said there should be one national language in Ukraine, but also added that Ukrainians should know at least three languages: Ukrainian, Russian, and English.
"In order for two [national] languages – Ukrainian and Russian – to be able to exist in Ukraine… each document should be made in two languages. Even in the parliament the service staff is to be increased by two times [so that they] can translate each page into Russian, [and] print it," he said in an interview with Channel 5 in Bucha, Kyiv region, where he participated in a ceremony on the occasion of the printing of the first page of a reprint issue of the Peresopnytsia Gospels at the ADEF-Ukraina publishing house.
The former president said the reissue of the Gospels would unite Ukrainians and all Orthodox peoples.
"I believe the issue of the Peresopnytsia Gospels will be a unifying impetus for our people, as well as for all Orthodox peoples," Kuchma told the participants in the ceremony, according to the website of Kuchma’s Ukrainafoundation.
The reprint issue of the Peresopnytsia Gospels, prepared for print by leading Ukrainian scientists, contains the original text and an adapted translation into modern Ukrainian.
