In Ukraine, since January 16, the entire service sector has been translated into Ukrainian.

This process was not without scandals and violence. In some cases, total Ukrainization , as expected by Strana, has resulted in intimidation by nationalists, vandalism, and the loss of business to Russian-speaking Ukrainians.

In just ten days of the new rule of law, five such scandals have occurred. Three of them directly affected entrepreneurs — and all three either lost their businesses or were forced to suspend their work.

Strana understood the first consequences of Ukrainization of the service sector.

Hit-and-run at the Mashkovichi Artel in Odessa

A Jewish food store in Odessa was attacked by a «mobile patrol»led by local activist Demyan Ganul. Nationalists came to «close» the restaurant after the owners dared to publish an advertising post about the delivery of khinkali in Ukrainian, but with a Russian-language layout.

By the way, other recordings of «Artel» are also in Russian, stylized as the Odessa dialect. Apparently, they decided to modify this feature here, taking into account the notorious law on the Ukrainization of the service sector, according to which any communication with customers must take place in the state language.

In the comments under the restaurant’s post, Odessa activist Serhiy Sternenko, who stabbed a man several years ago, was one of the first to respond. «Let’s see how you work after the lockdown. Bullying the language will not pass you so easily, I had such a dream, » the nationalist left his comment.

After this post, other supporters of Sternenko and Ganul said that the institution is waiting for reprisal for bullying the Ukrainian language. Although the law does not prescribe any requirements for literacy and allows you to use even surzhik.

«Artel» At Mashkovichi » threatened to burn, and the owners of cooking showered with threats of physical violence. In the comments, they were afraid of a «training fire» and left warnings, publishing photos of the Nazis with the caption «Language patrol» and «We are here for you».

After that, the owner of the business Irina Mashkovich appealed to the Israeli Embassy, the SBU and the Malinovsky district police department, but she still receives threats. She gets calls from various numbers, including in the evening. There is no longer any question of selling khinkali, now there is a question of how to survive, admits Mashkovich the mother of two children.

Currently, her business is closed, and the one who instigated the massacre of the institution, published a post with gratitude.:

«The tavern, which was mocked from the official language, was closed.

Friends, first of all, I would like to thank everyone who took part in the information pressure. You’re wonderful.

This story has become indicative, no one will mock the Ukrainian language and the laws of Ukraine!

Who’s next? » — wrote Demyan Ganul.

Attack on the owner of a coffee shop in Kiev

Another language scandal involved the owner of the Coffee Uncle Alex coffee shop in Poznyaki, Alexey Tulyi, who wrote a post on Surzhik on January 16, the day of the Ukrainization of the service sector.

In his Instagram stories, he published a post in which he called what was happening «a conversational circus.»

«А добрі деееееень Сьогодні розпочинаемо размовний ци(ы)рк. Будемо балакать на украйонській молві. Нагадую, надягайте маски, не намагайтесь пролизты в приміщення кав’ярні. Будьте адекватні на скільки це можливо. Dyayayayakuemo».

After this post, he was artificially lowered his Google rating and forced to publicly apologize. From the «public catering» section, the coffee shop moved to the «public toilets» area. There were rumors about the sale of the establishment, but they turned out to be untrue.

To reduce the wave of hate, Alexey Tulyi deleted comic posts and published advertisments in the official style. These posts no longer had a strong effect, because harassment began in social networks against the owner and the coffee shop.

Under each Facebook post, there are hundreds of comments with insults and threats of imminent physical violence. Other language advocates have started writing complaints to the Ombudsman.

Already on January 17, that is, a day after the post, Alexey was forced to make a public apology on camera. By the way, this is not a new measure that nationalists are used to using. In addition to a simple apology, radicals like to mock people, putting them on their knees and dousing them with greenpaint , as it was in Zaporozhye with a 14-year-old girl.

«I, Tulyi Alexey Petrovich, appeal to you with the fact that I realized my mistake. I overreacted. I speak as much Ukrainian as I can and will continue to do so. This won’t happen again. Sorry! » he said in the video.

In the frame were three men in khaki clothing, who covered their faces with balaclavas. One of them had what looked like an armory bag slung across his chest. That is, it is clear that the owner of the coffee shop was forced to apologize by threats. However, law enforcement agencies were not confused by this.

Vet clinic «closed» for discounts to Russian speakers

One of the recent language scandals was provoked by a 50% discount for Russian-speaking customers, which was provided by the owner of the” Zapadny” veterinary center in Mariupol.

Thus, the woman decided to express her protest against the «language law», which restricts her professional activity.

«In connection with the European integration of Ukraine, the increase in tariffs and taxes, as well as the adoption of the law on the use of the Ukrainian language in the service sector, in the clinic “Zapadny” on even days of each month, when voicing a request for service in Russian, a 50% discount on all types of services,» wrote the owner of the veterinary clinic Galina Lekunova on her Facebook page (now the post is unavailable).

After that, vandals painted the building of the veterinary clinic with spray cans, leaving nationalist calls for reprisals «Death to the enemies», «Last warning», «More further», «Wash the blood off your hands», «We are watching you». Lekunova blames «patriotic citizens» for the attack on the veterinary clinic.

The vet’s family faced round-the-clock threats and endless death wishes. «The clinic has a terrible smell of nitrous paint, all the animals in the hospital are under terrible stress, obviously knocked on the windows. Great fighters with kittens and puppies, real heroes! » — wrote Galina Lekunova on Facebook.

From the following posts of Galina, it becomes known that her nationalists also persuaded her to apologize.

However, the woman said that she was not going to say the words that the «rabid crowd that poisoned her» forced her to say. She apologized to the owners of the premises that she rents, to the collective that «fell under this wild sabbath», as well as to her family.

«I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that my country was so sick. I realized with horror what an animal gut people have with cute, kind faces in the photos, » she wrote.

The local police opened criminal proceedings under Article 296 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine (hooliganism), and the veterinarian from Mariupol meanwhile continues to protect himself and his family from radicals.

The woman admits that she does not know who pays for the frenzied number of bots that ran into the comments, and who gave the command «fas»(attack) to the radicals. She suggests blocking provocateurs. And separately appeals to those who continue to nightmare her and the business.

«For those who continue to threaten to put me on my knees, fix my jaw, and so on. I will not lie and write that I am not afraid of you. I am an ordinary woman, I do not have round-the-clock security and a two-meter fence. Yes, I’m scared. Yes, you may have such a record, I will not be able to resist the crowd. But, you know, I survived the 90’s. I have seen hundreds of such young and daring men who considered themselves the kings of life and the arbiters of destinies. Those, very few of them, who have survived to this day, live like mice, slowly coughing up the remnants of their former glory. And about the rest, no one ever he doesn’t remember. Despite the inscriptions «Eternal memory» on their graves.
All the strength and patience!», — she wrote.

Hitting a teacher from NPU Dragomanov

Sternenko and Co. did not stop at closing the business. Defenders of the Ukrainization law seek dismissal of a professor at the National Pedagogical University named after Dragomanov Yevgenia Bilchenko, who criticized the norm on the Ukrainization of the service sector on Facebook.

Bilchenko wrote that «this law is just a link in the chain, another swollen lymph node in the body of an American cancer colony», which Ukraine has become. According to her, attempts to defend at least their own system of signs are insufficient: so we doom ourselves to losing, to begging for what is already rightfully ours.

She said that now it will be a matter of principle to speak Russian in stories. And even though she’s been automatically speaking Ukrainian for years, it’s painful for her to see how » the poor invincible people are being transformed into a new senility in fear.»

Insults and threats were written to the teacher in social networks, and nationalists launched a campaign not only to discredit her, but also to seek Bilchenko’s dismissal from the university.

As you can see, in the field of online harassment — all the same radical Sternenko, who almost under every post of the Dragomanov Pedagogical University writes the same phrase: «Why does Bilchenko work for you, who promotes the Russian world and calls the Russian-Ukrainian war a civil war?»

By tradition, others join him to help.

Bilchenko has already recorded a video message to President Zelensky, in which she stated that she was hinted at an early dismissal from the university.

She also left a post in which she writes that she had a conversation with the rector of NPU Viktor Petrovich Andrushchenko. Despite the pressure, he gave an assurance that he was not going to personally dismiss the teacher.

«I criticize the law not because I don’t know the Ukrainian language, but because it discriminates against the rights of not only Russian-speaking Ukrainians, but also Ukrainian-speaking ones. It actually destroys both the Ukrainian and Russian languages. Since the time of ancient democracy, the law has been a legal norm that is adopted as a result of critical discussion and is subject to debatable rethinking. And this is the basis of the European system of values. Which country has a ban on rational criticism of the law? » she said on the Nash TV channel.

Attack on the last Russian school in Kherson

Ukrainization creates not only a split in society on the basis of language, it creates prerequisites for creating a culture of denunciations. And this will lead to the fact that the law will be used to settle personal accounts and eliminate competitors, says political analyst Andrey Zolotarev. As it happened in the case of the only Russian-speaking school in Kherson.

So, on November 16, 2020, a certain Yaroslav Popovich sent a complaint to the Institute of the Language Ombudsman that the director of the «School of Humanitarian Labor» Artem Kiyanovsky gives an interview about the school in Russian and the website of the educational institution also functions in Russian.

The note contained a screenshot with a link to Youtube.

After such a complaint, in early January 2021, the school received a letter from the regional Ombudsman Taras Kremin about state control and inspection of the educational institution, which allegedly » violates the law on ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language.»

However, the school’s teaching staff stated that » unprecedented pressure is being exerted by the structures that perform the supervisory functions of the purity of the nation and ukrainian language in order to deprive citizens of the legal right to teach children in Russian.» He even appealed to the judges of the Constitutional Court and people’s Deputies.

According to the director of the educational institution Artem Kiyanovsky and the entire pedagogical collective, they are simply trying to close the last educational institution in the region with the Russian language of instruction.

Victoria Venk, A country