ODESSA, Aug. 13 – Deputies of Odessa City Council have approved an instruction on the implementation of the law of Ukraine on the principles of the state language policy in Odessa at a special sitting on Monday and gave Russian language the status of a regional language in the city.

According to the city council's instruction, from now on the Russian language may be used on the territory of Odessa as a regional language in offices, official documents, at schools and universities, for advertising and in the municipal toponymy.