KIEV (Reuters) - Ukraine's acting president and prime minister offered some of their strongest pledges yet on Friday to strengthen constitutional rights to use the Russian language in an effort to defuse separatist protests.
In a joint televised address, acting President Oleksander Turchinov and Prime Minister Arseny Yatseniuk called for national unity, urged people to refrain from violence and said they would support constitutional change and decentralising more power to local councils, including over their official language - a central demand of Russian-speaking protesters in the east.