Donetsk, Jun 28 — DAN. The opportunity to learn Ukrainian will be provided to schoolchildren in the liberated areas of the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, “United Russia” Party General Council Secretary Andrey Turchak said on Tuesday during a video conference on the implementation of the Party’s project “Books for Donbass.”

“Unlike them (Ukrainian authorities — eds Donetsk News Agency), we are not going to prohibit anything. Those who wish to learn Ukrainian will be given this opportunity, ” “United Russia” press service quoted Turchak as saying.

New Russian textbooks will be provided to all DPR and LPR schools by September 1, he added. Some 40,000 textbooks have already been delivered to the Donbass Republics.

Russian Education Minister Sergey Kravtsov said that his Ministry and the “United Russia” Party will try to make sure that all schools in the region open on September 1.

Earlier reports said that schools in the liberated areas had begun to switch to Russian as the language of instruction.*jk