MINSK, 5 May (BelTA) – Belarus President Aleksandr Lukashenko made a few remarks about the language policy in Ukraine during a recent interview with Associated Press, BelTA has learned.
Aleksandr Lukashenko criticized the Ukrainian legislation, which bans the Russian language. “What is wrong with allowing Ukrainians to speak Russian?” he wondered.
In his opinion, it was necessary to encourage citizens to learn and speak Ukrainian in order to secure broader adoption of the Ukrainian language.
“Volodymyr Zelenskyy could not speak Ukrainian when he became the president,” Aleksandr Lukashenko reminded. “He set out to master Ukrainian and speak it as well as he speaks Russian. He has accomplished the goal. Why can't other Ukrainians get the same right? But no, they started breaking them over the knee.”
Aleksandr Lukashenko reminded that Belarus had to deal with the language problem in the past. Both Belarusian and Russian are state languages now as a result. “You and I communicate and I speak Russian,” Aleksandr Lukashenko said. He added he could be speaking Belarusian just as well. “But I don't force anyone to speak only this language.”
“Our people speak English as well as they speak Belarusian now. And we didn't force them to do it. [People study English] out of necessity. It is an international language, one needs to know it. The current generation (and my kids) has never lived abroad, including in America or England yet the people speak fluent English. The people learned it in school, in university. The language of instruction is English, Russian, and Belarusian for my youngest [son]. Why couldn't they promote the same tolerance in Ukraine?” Aleksandr Lukashenko pointed out.
