Ukraine backs tough TV language rules

KIEV: Ukraine´s parliament on Tuesday backed tough limits on the amount of Russian allowed to be aired on television in a step that is likely to raise the Kremlin´s ire.

A bill requiring major channels to broadcast at least three-quarters of their programmes in the Ukrainian language passed parliament by an overwhelming 269-15 margin.

The bill was adopted just a week after Ukraine blocked Russia´s most popular social media networks and a top internet search engine in a self-proclaimed effort to prevent Kremlin propaganda from reaching the crisis-torn former Soviet state.

Ukraine President Petro Poroshenko vowed to sign the legislation and bemoaned the amount of Russian still spoken on Ukrainian airwaves.

"I have drawn the attention of channel owners and managers on several occasions to the inadmissibly low amount of Ukrainian spoken," Poroshenko wrote on Facebook.

"On some channels the ratio was at 15 percent! Gentlemen, have you forgotten what country you live in?!"

Most people in Ukraine speak both languages but Russian is used more often in the east where government forces have been battling Kremlin-backed separatists for over three years.