Since the beginning of the year, the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language has received 1,212 appeals from citizens regarding violations of the Law “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language,” Taras Kremin, the language ombudsman, said on the air of the “Public”.

The record holder in the number of applications was the capital: the people of Kiev sent 491 appeals. On the second and third places - Odessa and Dnepropetrovsk regions, from where 184 and 104 applications were received, respectively.

Most often, complaints related to online stores, as well as sites through which services are provided - 450 appeals. Another 240 appeals related directly to the service sector.

Taras Kremin also added that education and science are among the most sensitive. Since the beginning of 2023, he received 153 appeals in violation of the Law on Language by Educators.

“These are the violations that were recorded in higher educational institutions, when professors, associate professors of individual universities continued to spread the thesis about the unimportance of Ukrainian as the language of the educational process,” he explained.. The Ombudsman also recalled the case with the State Tax University in Irpin, where, despite the requests of students, the teacher refused to teach classes in philosophy in Ukrainian.

As a result of this incident, the teacher was fired under the articles of the Labor Code of Ukraine.

At the same time, he added that dismissal does not mean avoiding punishment..

“The sanctions provided for by the Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses in the Ukrainian language will! "

Kremin noted the high activity of students in improving the language situation.

“We have student language ombudsmen in the south, east and center of the country. Young people truly assert Ukrainian: they create conversational language clubs, unite in associations of language courses, encourage others to use the Ukrainian language,” he said..

Earlier, Kremin reported that during January and February 2023, the office of the language ombudsman received 455 complaints about violations of the language law..

The incident in Irpin became public when a teacher switched to a mixture of Ukrainian and Russian during a lecture.. And in response to the comments of the students, she said that the exam would be taken in Russian. Crime or misconduct? What problems does this incident expose and what should be the reaction of the system?

About this - in the article by Konstantin Shvabiy \?