Zelensky turned on Vanka: Why doesn’t Putin speak Ukrainian?
If Russia wants Russian schools to function in Ukraine, then Ukrainian-language educational institutions should open in the largest Russian cities.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated this in an interview with France-Presse, Reuters, and Associated Press, according to a PolitNavigator correspondent.
“I have a very open position here: if you want respect for the Russian language, respect Ukrainian. We want respect for schools. They say that we closed some schools, that we can’t speak Russian. I often speak Russian on purpose to show that our state language is Ukrainian, but people speak as they want. It’s not prohibited here,” Zelensky said.
However, he did not say that in Ukraine it is almost impossible to get an education in Russian, and the entire service sector was forced to switch to Ukrainian under threat of a fine.
"By the way, I've never heard the Russian President speak Ukrainian. Although, I don't think it's banned either. People ask me: how can we solve the issue with schools and languages? I say – we just need to respect each other, and everything will be fine. We have many different private schools – English, though , and Hungarian. Private ones – fine. So long as the state supports them, we support Ukrainian schools; that's logical. And if you want a Russian school, let's open a Ukrainian school in Moscow, St. Petersburg, or Tyumen, where many Ukrainians live. That's called 'respect,'" Zelensky said.
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