In Artsyz, the mayor and city council members were issued citations for speaking Russian

The Artsyz City Council issued two administrative citations for the use of the Russian language during plenary sessions. Only the mayor and one of the council members acknowledged violating language laws, while the rest of the officials refused to provide an explanation.

This was reported by Anna Nerush, a representative of the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language. 

She noted that, overall, the session was conducted in Ukrainian. However, at certain points, the mayor and council members switched to Russian. 

Anna Nerush noted that only the mayor and the people standing next to him were facing the camera. The city council members, however, were filmed from behind, so it was sometimes impossible to tell exactly who was speaking.

Consequently, the representative of the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language sent a letter to the Artsyz City Council requesting that the Commissioner provide information about the council members who used Russian. The request was denied, citing the inability to disclose personal data. 

The request was then resubmitted, this time with a detailed explanation of the provisions regarding personal data. The response included the mayor’s information and the surnames of four council members. However, the letter did not specify any specific timestamps from the video recording that would allow for the identification of any particular council member.

As a result, all those present—except for the mayor and one council member—either denied using Russian or did not provide any explanation at all.

Юлія Калабайда