Ombudsman Kremin responds to the language scandal in Odesa: the reaction will be tough
17 June 2024 13:16
A blogger was kicked out of a business event in Odesa for asking to speak Ukrainian. Taras Kremin, the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, said that violators of language legislation would be punished, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports
Participant of the event, Odesa blogger Yulia Karabadzhak, posted a video from the event “Networking Evening”, which took place in Odesa on Saturday, 15 June. The video shows how the event organiser, Vitaliy Stupayenko, started the event in Russian. Also, one of the speakers, Oleg Filashkin, started his speech in Russian against the background of a presentation in Ukrainian.
Shortly after he began his speech, a visitor asked him to present the information in Ukrainian.
“I’m sorry, but can you please speak in the state language?”
– yulia Karabadzhak asked.
The participant then asked about the availability of an interpreter, and was told that she could hire one herself and that she was “not held back”.
The girl then showed a fragment of how she was being escorted out of the hall, saying that she was disrupting the event.
Language Ombudsman Taras Kremin has already responded to the incident.
“The Odesa language scandal is a classic story about a rake that the organisers stepped on. By inviting people to the event who demanded that their right to information in the state language be ensured, the initiators of the ‘business event’, having foreign-language speakers, violated several articles of the language law and the criminal code. This is, unfortunately, a problem that still exists in the minds of a small cohort of Russified contemporaries,”
– Kremin wrote.
The Ombudsman stressed that harassment for language and expulsion from a public event is “the subject of attention of law enforcement agencies”.
“The reaction will be harsh. Violators will be punished. No one is allowed to commit such gross abuses against Ukrainian citizens. I also hope for the reaction of the local authorities, which are obliged to create conditions and, in case of violations, to act and respond appropriately,”
– the Ombudsman added.
Earlier, the language ombudsman, Taras Kremin, asked TCC employees to speak Ukrainian.
