Zelensky bans Russian, Belarusian publications; Cultural war drags on
Volodymyr Zelensky signs a bill into law banning all Russian and Belarusian publications from entering Ukraine, intensifying Kiev's cultural war on ethnic minorities.
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In this photo released by the Dnipro Region Administration, Municipal workers dismantle a monument of Russian writer Alexander Pushkin in the city centre of Dnipro, Ukraine, Friday, Dec. 16, 2022 (Dnipro Region Administration via AP)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has passed a bill that prohibits the import and sale of "publishing products" from Russia and Belarus.
The purpose of this law, as claimed by the Ukrainian presidency, is to enhance the safeguarding of Ukrainian cultural and information space against Russia's "anti-Ukrainian propaganda."
To ensure compliance with its obligations to protect the rights of ethnic minorities, particularly linguistic minorities, Ukraine has shared a copy of the legislation with the European Union as part of its EU accession process.
"The President of Ukraine instructed the Government to respond to the recommendations of the European Commission, if needed, by submitting a draft of relevant amendments to the Verkhovna Rada [parliament]," the presidency said in a statement.
Zelensky's bill has a deeper context which has its origins in campaigns against ethnic minorities and its plots to abolish diverse cultures which made up Ukraine's social fabric
In 2017, an education law was passed, restricting Russian and Hungarian-speaking Ukrainians from receiving an education in their native languages.
Zelensky, upon assuming the presidency, called on his nation to shoot down corruption, saying: "Let's build a country of other opportunities. Where everybody is equal before the law and where the rules of the game are honest and transparent, that are the same for everyone." The Ukrainian leader did not stick to his words, nor was Ukraine this utopia that saw everyone being treated equally. As a matter of fact, the complete opposite happened, with various ethnic minorities, mainly the Russian-speaking ones, getting discriminated against.
Read more: Zelensky's fall to grace in the West
In February, Hungarian President Katalin Novak emphasized that Ukraine needed to ensure minority rights before becoming a member of the EU.
Previously in November 2022, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto stated that "They say that we prevented the convening of an official meeting of the Ukraine-NATO commission. There is nothing new and nothing surprising in our position. A few years ago we made it clear that we will not agree to the convocation of this commission (Ukraine-NATO) until Ukraine returns the rights to the Transcarpathian Hungarians."
