Language scandal in Odesa: at a business event, the speaker spoke in Russian, and the listeners were taken out of the hall for his remarks

Language scandal in Odessa. Screenshot from the video

In Odesa on Saturday, June 15, a language conflict occurred at a business event called the Evening of Networking. One of the speakers refused to speak in Ukrainian when the listeners made comments to him.

The relevant video was shared on social networks.

It shows a woman telling the speaker that she does not understand Russian. Speaker Ole Filishyn advised to «listen to the essence, not the language.» After that, he continued to speak in Russian. The woman asked if there would be an interpreter, and in the end she was «asked» to leave because she was allegedly disrupting a business event.

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It is also noted that the organizer of the event was Vitalii Stupaienko, who also started the event in Russian. However, he later recorded a video message in which he admitted his guilt as an organizer and promised not to allow speeches in Russian in the future.

The Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Taras Kremin managed to react to the scandal. He noted that similar situations still occur in Odesa and this is «a story about the rake that the organizers stepped on.»

«Inviting to the event people who demanded to ensure their right to information in the state language, the initiators of the «business event», having foreign speakers, violated several articles of the language law and the criminal code at once. This, unfortunately, is the problem that still exists in the minds of a small cohort of contemporaries. Being harassed for speaking and being kicked out of a public event is also the subject of law enforcement agencies' attention. The reaction will be harsh. Violators will be punished. No one is allowed to abuse citizens of Ukraine like this. I also hope for the reaction of the local authorities, which are obliged to create the conditions and, in case of violations, to act and react appropriately. In this situation, which arose during the war, which is also going on for the right to Ukrainian, especially,» he wrote on his Facebook page

We will remind you that Odesa region took third place in the rating of Ukrainian regions in which the largest number of violations of the Language Law were recorded.

It was also reported that the Odesa City Council approved the Ukrainian language development program for 2024-2025. It is planned to spend 1.8 million hryvnias on its implementation.