Ivano-Frankivsk mayor wants to eradicate Russian language in the city

The number of those speaking Russian has increased in the Ukrainian city of Ivano-Frankivsk. The city authorities decided to introduce the practice of "language inspectors” to counter the problem. The inspectors will work to make remarks to people speaking Russian in public places. Such inspectors will work for free, almost 50 people have already volunteered, city mayor Ruslan Martsinkiv said.

Photo: Openverse by polandeze, CC BY 2.0

"They will say: "If you find it difficult to speak Ukrainian, there are online Ukrainian language courses that you may take, and it will be easier for you to communicate in Ukrainian," the official said.

The mayor said that he had spoken to language ombudsman Taras Kremin to discuss measures to popularize the Ukrainian language.

"Most likely, we will introduce a public initiative — language inspectors. Unfortunately, the Russian language has become more common in Ivano-Frankivsk. This is a problem for our state and for our city in particular," UNIAN quoteв the mayor as saying.

However, language ombudsman Taras Kremin announced that there would be no language inspectors in Ukraine.

"I want to warn against one big danger: there have never been and will never be any language inspectors in Ukraine,” Kremin said.