Russian government officials will be banned from using most foreign words when carrying out their duties, according to an amended law signed by president Vladimir Putin.
Since launching the invasion of Ukraine a year ago, Putin has said he wants to protect Russia from what he calls a “degenerate West” that he alleges is trying to destroy the country.
The amendments to the 2005 law are designed to protect and support the status of Russian, according to a text posted on the government’s website.
This comes as Volodymyr Zelensky said that the intensity of fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces around the eastern city of Bakhmut is continuing to increase.
“The most difficult situation is still Bakhmut and the battles that are important for the defence of the city,” he said in his nightly address.
Elsewhere, a senior Pentagon official has called the war’s frontlines in Ukraine a “grinding slog” as he said that Russian forces are unlikely to make significant territorial gains in the next year.
