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June 15, 2025, 7:13 p.m.
Odesa City Council member tells how he got a store security guard fired for speaking Russian
Цей матеріал також доступний українською127
Photo collage: Intent
Andriy Vagapov, a deputy of the Odesa City Council, found himself in the middle of a language conflict at an Auchan store in the Riviera shopping center.
According to the deputy, he was paying at the supermarket's checkout and noticed a security guard who was looking closely at his purchases.
The deputy asked the security guard what was going on, and he demanded a receipt in Russian. When Andrii Vahapov asked to speak Ukrainian, the guard said that if the MP did not understand Russian, he would ask him in English.
"With a terrible accent, he tried to say "do you speak English? Check" with gestures with his hands
I told him to call the head of security, and I did not want to communicate with him. When I stepped away from the cash register, I heard in my direction "I have been living here for fifty years and I speak as I see fit. And there were no problems before. Where did you come from to speak like that?" Turning to him, I said that I would appeal to his superiors and leaned over to read the name on his badge, but he gave me a push in the shoulder with the words "go away in small steps," the deputy said.
Turning to another security guard, the deputy found out where the head of security was and continued to talk to the head of security and the store administrator, informing them of the incident.
"The head of security and the administrator were very surprised. They said that the guards sign documents stating that they are obliged to communicate exclusively in the state language. It took 22 minutes from the beginning of the conflict until the security guard was taken to the office for dismissal," summarized Andriy Vahapov.
According to the deputy, the store administration promised to provide him with a letter within five days, which will describe what official punishment their employee suffered before being fired.
