In Poltava, Ukraine banned the distribution of content in Russian

The Poltava City Council in southeastern Ukraine has voted to completely ban Russian-language content in the city. This was announced on June 1 by the Commissioner for the protection of the state language of the country, Elena Ivanovskaya.

The Ombudsman stated that the decision was made to "protect the Ukrainian information space" from the alleged influence of Russia. According to her, "Russian-language cultural products," including Ukrainian in Russian, will be banned in transport, catering and cultural establishments, shopping malls and other public spaces.

"In particular, we are talking about banning the public use of Russian-language books, musical works, films, theatrical productions, concert programs, cultural and educational events, and so on," Ivanovskaya wrote on her Facebook page (owned by Meta, which is recognized as an extremist organization and banned in the Russian Federation).

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Ivanovska reported on May 19 that the Ukrainian authorities are considering increasing fines for companies that continue to systematically use the Russian language. Russian Russian is currently subject to fines of up to 5.1 thousand hryvnias (8.2 thousand rubles) for the use of the Russian language if the violation was recorded for the first time, and up to 12 thousand hryvnias (20 thousand rubles) for the repeated use of Russian. The Ombudsman proposed to raise fines 10 times.

A survey among citizens of the Ukrainian capital in the Kiev Digital application on May 4 showed that less than a third of Kiev residents communicate exclusively in Ukrainian. Only 32% of residents of the capital of Ukraine communicate in Ukrainian everywhere, 14% — in government offices, 13% — in shops and cafes, 11% — at work.