Oleksandr Usyk, world heavyweight champion, spoke about whether Ukrainians should be forced to switch from Russian to Ukrainian.
“I want to tell you about this - we should not force people. Not a single person, whether it is the western part of Ukraine, northern or southern - it doesn’t matter, it so happened that some people were born where they communicate exclusively in Ukrainian, and some were born in Mariupol, Crimea, Donetsk - there was only Russian language and with this grew. It is impossible to force them now or somehow condemn them. We must help. The more we force people to do something, the more people will make a fence in front of them and will not be able to cross this barrier. We Ukrainians must help each other. I communicate with children - half of these words, half of these, they communicate with me, I am exclusively in Ukrainian. They go to a Ukrainian school, then they run among themselves, somewhere a Russian, Spanish, English word. But they will come. Each person will come to this on his own, you just need to help, and not knock on the forehead: "You speak incorrectly, you are not a real Ukrainian, you speak a different language." It happened, but everyone needs help and not be a bad prosecutor and condemn people. Whoever condemns is not a real Ukrainian, he is a bastard who needs to be kicked in the skin.”
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