A well-known theater in Odesa has been caught up in a high-profile language scandal
A well-known theater in Odesa found itself at the center of a high-profile language scandal following a surprise on-site inspection that lasted more than two and a half hours.
Inspectors discovered numerous Russian-language signs, banned literature, and violations on social media, leading to four administrative citations being issued against the establishment.
The inspection was initiated after three official complaints were received from various citizens regarding possible violations of the Law of Ukraine “On Ensuring the Functioning of the Ukrainian Language as the State Language.”
The theater’s management granted the inspectors full access to the premises and documents, but they were unable to prevent the violations from being documented.
One of the violations directly concerned customer service, where the citizens’ complaint was accompanied by irrefutable evidence—a video recording showing a theater employee assisting a visitor exclusively in Russian.
Based on this incident, the specialists drew up a report under Article 30 of the Language Law, which requires that services be provided and customers be served in the official language.
In addition, books written in a non-official language by the theater’s own actors were being sold in the theater lobby.
The inspection revealed five Russian-language titles and none in Ukrainian. According to current legislation, at any point of sale for printed materials, the proportion of books in the official language must be at least 50% of the total inventory.
The theater’s management has already promised to rectify this situation immediately and stock Ukrainian-language copies.
Inspectors also found three informational signs for audience members written in Russian inside the theater building itself.
Since this was the second time this violation had been detected in a year, the response was immediate—during the inspection, the signs were promptly removed and replaced with Ukrainian equivalents.
The theater’s official social media pages also let the institution down, as they continued to publish Russian-language posts, use similar hashtags, and even feature audio in the language of the aggressor country.
This was reported by the Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language.
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