Ukrainian director explains why Akhmetov spoke Ukrainian
18 June 2024 22:00
ЕКСКЛЮЗИВ
The video of Ukrainian businessman Rinat Akhmetov speaking Ukrainian instantly went viral on the internet. What inspired the oligarch to speak the state language and how it happened, Ukrainian Emmy Award-winning director, producer, sports reporter and journalist Volodymyr Mula told "Komersant Ukrainian".
The director said that he was offered a meeting with Rinat Akhmetov, the president of FC Shakhtar, as a sign of appreciation for his work. He agreed.
“The man really understands the significance of this award for Ukraine in the first place. To be honest, it was nice to hear the words of gratitude addressed to me. In return, I also thanked him for allowing me to open the doors of the football team,” said Volodymyr Mula.
The sports reporter explained that no one had done this before Rinat Akhmetov.
“I had full access to the players, coaching staff and top management. If we hadn’t had this access, it would have been very difficult for us to compete in the creative component. We were up against world-recognised projects. And Rinat Akhmetov was the person who made the final decision to let the film crew inside,” Mula added.
The filmmaker also expressed the opinion that businessman and oligarch Rinat Akhmetov’s switch to the Ukrainian language is a manifestation of a normal civic position of a person living in Ukraine.
“I didn’t think that the video of our meeting would go viral with millions of views,” admitted Vladimir Mula.
It is worth noting that Rinat Akhmetov probably spoke Ukrainian for the first time when he appeared in public on the roof of his own shopping centre TSUM in Kyiv. He was presented with an honorary statuette at the Emmy Awards for a documentary series about his club Shakhtar called Football Must Go On. Ukrainians were impressed that Akhmetov used the state language in his speech. After all, even on the eve of the Russian Federation’s invasion of Ukraine, he had called on his countrymen to defend their country in Russian.
