Over the three days of Article 30 of the Ukrainian Language Law, the office of the Language Ombudsman received more than 100 complaints from different regions of Ukraine regarding violations in the service sector.

This was announced by the commissioner for the protection of the state language Taras Kremin.

As a reminder, Article 30 of the Law "On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language" obliges enterprises in the service sector and trade to post information about goods and services on price tags, instructions, labels, markings, etc. in Ukrainian.

In addition, it is also necessary to start communication with clients only in Ukrainian.

You can switch to another language if the visitor asks about it.

Speaking about the complaints received in his office, the Ombudsman separately mentioned the predominantly Russian-speaking Odessa, from which several applications also came.

“So far four, but I think this is a dynamic that demonstrates traditional violations,” said Kremin.

According to him, no one restricts communication with clients in a convenient language, however, staff must address citizens in the state language.

“Odessa is a multinational and tourist pearl.

Therefore, of course, one must be able to speak not only Ukrainian and Russian, but also foreign languages.

This is a matter of language competence, ”said Kremin.

The language ombudsman also recalled that all signs must be made in Ukrainian, and in the case of branded names, translated into Ukrainian.

For violation of Article 30, the law provides for fines for enterprises in the amount of up to 6.8 thousand hryvnia (17.8 thousand rubles), but their introduction

postponed until July 16, 2022.

At the same time, a group of 27 deputies of the Servant of the People faction presented a bill in December 2020 to abolish fines for entrepreneurs for violating language norms.

According to the head of the faction, David Arakhamia, now there are heated internal discussions on the document, an agreed position will appear at the end of January, when the Verkhovna Rada resumes its work in plenary mode.

Odessa frontier

According to the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language, "The Law of Ukraine" On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as a state language "is extremely democratic."

And those who call to bypass him, Kremin called provocateurs who "act on" temniks "sent from neighboring countries."

At the same time, the consequences of the introduction of the new norm of the law did not hesitate to affect ordinary Ukrainians.

For example, a high-profile case took place in Odessa, mentioned by the Ombudsman, where nationalists threaten a store specializing in the delivery of Jewish dishes.

Culinary Artel U Mashkovichi On January 16, the day the new language norm came into force, posted an advertisement for food delivery in Ukrainian on its Facebook page.

But Ukrainian words were written in Russian letters.

After the announcement was published in the comments to it, the nationalists said that the owners were “mocking the Ukrainian language” and began to threaten them with “training fire”.

In addition, the “patriots” posted several photographs of Wehrmacht soldiers with the caption “Movny Patrol”, hinting at the ethnicity of the business organizers.

The owner of the cookery, Irina Mashkovich, said that she had submitted a statement of threats to the SBU and also to the Israeli embassy, ​​since her husband is a citizen of this country.

“I was running ads from an old Chinese phone.

There is no Ukrainian layout.

Therefore, I gave the text without Ukrainian letters, from the Russian keyboard.

This is not a mockery of the language, but just a technical problem.

Threats followed.

They write that they will set fire to the premises and break the jaw ... My husband, an Israeli citizen, is simply shocked by the content of the threats - they sent a lot of Nazi photos from the Second World War.

There are a lot of anti-Semitic threats, ”the Strana.ua portal quotes her.

However, a RT source in the Odessa city council believes that such appeals are unlikely to affect the current state of affairs.

“Odessa mayor's office took the position of Kiev, and the mayor of the city, Gennady Trukhanov, began to conduct all meetings in Ukrainian.

All the officials were told directly that it was time to teach MOV.

So local entrepreneurs will have to rely only on themselves - no one intends to help them.

I don't think that even contacting the Israeli embassy can change the situation.

Kiev has long ceased to control the actions of radicals who can come to any institution and do whatever they want.

In Odessa, too, they turn a blind eye to this, ”the source told RT.

In turn, a RT source in the Golos party is confident that violent Ukrainization will lead to a host of conflicts.

“This is a common situation for Ukraine, when there is a demand, but there is no responsibility for non-fulfillment.

Moreover, the state is not able to control the implementation of its own laws.

Therefore, the number of complaints will grow, and radicals will take the situation into their own hands.

Unfortunately, this always happens: when state institutions do not work, problems are created out of the blue, ”says the deputy.

Anti-democratic norms

Ukrainian language laws violate human rights and at the same time push a significant number of citizens to "revive the denunciation system, which is absolutely contrary to democratic norms," ​​Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS Countries, said in an interview with RT.

“Undoubtedly, this law can lead to even greater discrimination of the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine by radicals.

But you need to understand that discrimination against the Russian-speaking population by Ukrainian-speaking residents in Ukraine has been going on since Soviet times, for example, in the media.

At that time, journalists who did not speak Ukrainian could not work on radio and television.

This discrimination was established a long time ago, and it was it that led to the fact that the voice of nationalist radicals is so well heard in Ukraine now.

This humanitarian problem in Ukraine has been acutely political for many years and largely affects the political situation in the country, ”the expert explained.

  • Vladimir Zelensky

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  • © Aaron Chown

In an interview with RT, economist and political analyst Alexander Dudchak emphasized that by introducing such norms, the Ukrainian leadership is actually encouraging language discrimination against the Russian-speaking population.

“Such linguistic norms in the near future will lead to greater discrimination of the Russian-speaking population in Ukraine by radical groups, semi-legal gangs that can only mock those whom the law and law enforcement agencies cannot protect,” the expert said.

In turn, the interlocutor of RT from the Ukrainian party "Batkivshchyna" was forced to admit that the new language norms became an additional risk factor for Ukrainian but Russian-speaking businessmen.

“Doing business in Ukraine is a huge risk.

The state did not support entrepreneurs during lockdowns and the crisis, and now it has also come up with a new norm with the Ukrainian language.

It's impossible to learn it in a month, and where can you get money to pay for courses for your employees?

But now people can come to any store or restaurant who may not like the way they greeted them.

And then it will begin: tires, protests and an actual defeat - the nationalists have more than enough tools.

And all this was accompanied by the silent reaction of law enforcement officers.

State bodies are doing everything to make Ukrainians leave the country as soon as possible, ”the deputy said.

The current language laws are adopted and operate with the approval of the administration of Vladimir Zelensky, recalled Alexander Dudchak.

Despite the pre-election words about the need to more carefully study the law on education, signed by Petro Poroshenko, he continues the discriminatory language policy of his predecessor due to the lack of his own political will, the expert added.

“Zelenskiy is a puppet in the hands of the United States, which is afraid of its own shadow and wants to please, fearing to displease an American or European official.

Now he staged a real terror in the language sphere and overshadowed Poroshenko in this matter, ”the political scientist concluded.