The Ukrainian opposition is determined to impeach President Viktor Yanukovych, opposition leader Arseny Yatsenyuk said on Monday.
Soon after the Supreme Rada, the Ukrainian parliament, passed a controversial language bill boosting the legal status of Russian, the opposition launched a nationwide campaign, Ukraine without Yanukovych, pushing for early parliamentary and presidential elections.
The opposition will go to Ukraine’s supreme court in what Yatsenyuk said was “the first legal step toward Yanukovych’s ouster.”
If the court rejects the suit the opposition will go to international courts.
“We want to impeach Yanukovych,” Yantsenyuk said.
The new law, drafted by Yanukovych's ruling Party of Regions, grants Russian, the mother tongue of most people in eastern and southern Ukraine, "regional language" status.
Supreme Rada speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn and his deputy Mykola Tomenko resigned over the bill.
Jailed former prime minister Yulia Tymoshenko said the bill’s passage is a challenge to the Ukrainian nation.
Yanukovych's party insists the law does not undermine Ukrainian, but critics say it is aimed at deepening the friction between Ukrainian and Russian speakers ahead of parliamentary elections in October.
