The radical Ukrainian instructor who despised Russian-speaking troopers will return to educating | EUROtoday

The place of the Russian language in Ukraine is typically divisive. The controversial former deputy and Ukrainian language instructor is aware of this nicely. Iryna Farion, who misplaced his job final 12 months for disparaging Russian-speaking Ukrainians. He even questioned the patriotism of the troopers of the Russian-speaking nation when he declared in a tv interview in November that he didn’t think about members of the Armed Forces who communicate Pushkin's language to be Ukrainian. But what put her within the goal of Justice was publishing a letter from a pupil from Crimea on a Telegram channel, Maxim Glebov, who supported her place: he advised her that she was a “ray of light in the darkness of the occupation” and that he agreed that Ukraine and its language ought to prevail. The instructor was reckless sufficient to disclose her info, after which he was arrested by the Russian police. Faithful to the repressive custom of putinismthe scholar was pressured to submit a video apologizing.

Shortly after these occasions, the Ukrainian Security Service initiated prison proceedings in opposition to Farion. And the Lviv Polytechnic, the place he taught, terminated his employment contract. By then she had already despised the Azov Brigade – which she defended – together with her feedback. Mariupol in an agonizing and defiant resistance – because of the truth that a big a part of its members communicate in Russian: “I can't call them Ukrainians. If they don't speak Ukrainian, let them call themselves Russians. Why are they so crazy? If they are such great patriots “Demonstrate your patriotism,” said Farion, who, despite his recalcitrant nationalism, is far from taking up a weapon to defend the territorial integrity of his country.

A large part of Ukrainians are bilingual, but some use Russian as their first language and there are those who do not even speak Ukrainian or cannot write it correctly. In some areas of the country, Surzhyk is spoken, a mixture of both languages. Not everyone has the language they want: Under Soviet and Russian rule, the Russian language was given priority and the Ukrainian language was repressed.. Some Ukrainians also collaborated in the process. Including Iryna Farion herself, who (according to Ukrainian media) during the USSR worked to promote the Russian language among foreigners.

Farion has not changed her position, she remains an ultranationalist who calls for the total abolition of the Russian language in the country. Her inflexible attitude occasioned her protests even in Lviv, the city that is the main exponent of Ukrainian nationalism. Students from the Lviv Polytechnic, the Ivan Franko National University in Lviv and also from other cities such as the National University of Technology and Design in kyiv came out to protest against Farion for his attitude last year.

It was in that storm of indignation that she was fired from the institution where she had been working for 30 years. Now a Ukrainian court restores him to his position and has ordered that the teacher must be paid the salaries corresponding to the period of forced absence from November 2023 to May 29 of this year -about 2,700 euros-. Responding to journalists' question about whether she would return to the University, Irina Farion assured that she was thinking about it. But for now, take the money without asking what language the person giving it to you speaks.