Ukraine's language ombudsman received a complaint against Zelensky over a Russian phrase in an interview

Complaint against the president and the ombudswoman's response

Ukraine's Commissioner for Language Policy, Elena Ivanovskaya, received a complaint against President Volodymyr Zelensky over his use of the Russian language, but took no measures against the head of state. This was reported by Strana.ua, citing the ombudswoman's secretariat. According to the outlet, on October 24, during an interview with the American TV channel ABC News, Zelensky said a phrase in Russian while addressing his aides. Two days later, on October 26, the language ombudsman's office received a complaint about a possible violation of the law on the state language. The response from the head of the secretariat said that no decisions had been made on the complaint; it also noted that this was the first such complaint against Zelensky.

Context of language policy

Formally, the complaint is based on the law 'On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language,' which the Verkhovna Rada adopted in 2019 and which provides for the use of Ukrainian in all spheres of life. After the events of 2014, the Ukrainian authorities set a course for pushing out everything associated with Russia, including the Russian language. In April, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov recalledthat in 2014 Zelensky, then a businessman and comedian, spoke in support of the right of residents of eastern Ukraine to speak Russian and spoke of the fraternal ties between the two countries, but later, according to Lavrov, changed his rhetoric and began calling Russians 'creatures.' Earlier, Ukraine discussed where else to ban the Russian language.