Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN Volodymyr Yelchenko has said that Russia, which has been repressing the Ukrainian language, continues to do so in the occupied Crimea, cannot give directions to Ukraine what language to speak and write.
“A country that for centuries suppressed the Ukrainian language and forcefully replaced it with the Russian in all spheres of public life is not in a position to tell us now what language we should speak and write,” Yelchenko said, speaking at a meeting of the UN Security Council on July 16.
The diplomat added that there are Ukrainian schools in Australia, Argentina, Slovakia and many other countries. “Russia, where about 3 million Ukrainians live, has not a single Ukrainian school. Moreover, there were 7 Ukrainian and 15 Crimean Tatar schools in Crimea before the Russian occupation in 2014. The occupying authorities closed all Ukrainian and half of the Crimean Tatar schools,” he said.
The ambassador is convinced that Russia, raising such questions in the Security Council, wants to divert attention and take the pressure off itself. “Every time the Russian delegation raises this subject, it pursues a double goal: to put a political pressure on Ukraine and to distract attention from other issues,” he said.
