Scandal erupts in Ukraine over Russian-language biathlon broadcasts

The language ombudsman of Ukraine, Taras Kremin, has accused the coach of the country's national biathlon team of using the Russian language in a live broadcast of a biathlon competition on Ukrainian Public TV. This became known on December 4 because of complaints from viewers in social networks.

"It is surprising that the broadcaster did not take into account the instruction from the Ministry of sports and violated the terms of the contract, because in the field of sports there is a requirement of mandatory use of the Ukrainian language during briefings, meetings, holding other public events," - said Kremin.

However, the language ombudsman recognized that for five years of the law on the state language, the country's residents have not completely switched to the Ukrainian language.

Since 2019, the law on the state language is in force in Ukraine. According to it, the Russian language should be excluded from all spheres of public life. Since 2021 for violations of the law are fines, and from 2024 introduced penalties for "public humiliation or insult of the state language".

Earlier, on October 24, the former Ukrainian MP pointed to the increase in the Russian-speaking population in the west of the country. The so-called Ukrainization, the pressure on the Russian-speaking population by Kiev, has become one of the causes of the conflict in Ukraine, the local authorities have not made the right conclusions. Thus, there are even more Russian speakers in the west of the country. Spyrydon Kilinkarov, a former Ukrainian MP and a member of the international public movement Other Ukraine, said this in a conversation with Izvestiya on 24 October.