Ukrainian high jumper Oksana Okuneva became the epicenter of a scandal after she published a post in defense of the Russian language on her Facebook page. After the post caused outrage, the athlete quickly deleted it.
In her post, Okuneva expressed dissatisfaction with criticism of the Russian language, noting that "Ukrainian and Russian languages come from the Old Russian language." She also tried to justify her position by pointing out that native citizens of Ukraine and their ancestors spoke and still speak Russian.
"I'm tired of seeing posts about how the Russian language is being shamed. I speak for the nationalists from Western Ukraine. Based on historical facts, the Ukrainian and Russian languages come from the Old Russian language. The Slavs were divided into tribes, each with its own dialects and accents. The majority of indigenous citizens of Ukraine, their ancestors who lived before the emergence of Ukraine, spoke and still speak Russian. The Russian language was not invented by Putin or Yeltsin, not by their predecessors! As the Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko said: "Learn from others, and do not shy away from your own." If the enemy speaks our Russian language, we should not be ashamed of it. I call on nationalists not to divide the great Ukrainian people on the basis of language," Okuneva wrote in her post.
This post caused a wide resonance in Ukrainian society and was subsequently deleted both from the athlete's personal page and from the Ukrainian Athletics Instagram page, which previously shared this post.
Oksana Okunyeva is a seven-time champion of Ukraine in high jump, a participant of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio and the winner of the 2017 Universiade.
