Beniuk supported Farion in the scandal with the Ukrainian Armed Forces and called Russian-speaking Ukrainians "aggressors"

Famous Ukrainian theater and film actor Bohdan Beniuk has defended former member of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and linguist Iryna Farion, who is at the epicenter of a language scandal. The artist believes that the former lecturer at Lviv Polytechnic aptly spoke about the Russian-speaking population of Ukraine, which he considers 'invaders.'

Bohdan Beniuk believes that it is 'unacceptable' to speak the language of the enemy, even in the area of combat operations. He spoke about this in an interview with OBOZ.UA.

The actor considers the language issue acute and relevant, and the controversial statements of his Svoboda party colleague Iryna Farion are 'absolutely accurate.'

'And those citizens of Ukraine who do not speak Ukrainian should understand that by speaking Russian, they continue to promote the 'Russian world' in Ukraine. And everyone should recognize this. First of all, to the leaders of the state who encourage this, to all employees who work in state institutions, to the leadership of the Ukrainian army and commanders who take an oath to serve Ukraine in the Ukrainian language. Farion said the right thing and was not afraid to do it during the war,' the artist said.

The film and theater star did not ignore Ukrainians who continue to speak the language of the enemy when traveling abroad. He calls such Ukrainian citizens 'Russians.' Bohdan Beniuk does not believe that there should be any exceptions for the military.

'Those people who grew up in Ukraine should think about it. They should be ashamed of themselves! The fact that they are defending Ukraine is great. But they defend it by speaking the language of the invader. This is unacceptable. They need to realize this and change their attitude to the most important thing - Ukrainian citizenship. Because a Ukrainian citizen who is a native speaker is considered a citizen of Ukraine, and I consider all the rest to be invaders. This also applies to Ukrainians abroad. If they don't speak Ukrainian, what kind of Ukrainians are they? They should be crossed out and said to be Russians,' the actor explained.

Read the full interview with Bohdan Beniuk on OBOZ.UA on Friday, November 24.

As a reminder, Iryna Farion's resonant statement that she cannot consider Russian-speaking defenders of Ukraine to be Ukrainians caused a flurry of outrage on social media. The linguist was also sharply criticized by boxer Oleksandr Usyk, former Dynamo Kyiv football player Oleksandr Aliiev, and warrior actor Pavlo Aldoshin.

The culprit of the scandal herself has already made several more resonant statements. In particular, Farion emphasized that her struggle is more important than 'fighting from a zero position,' and called on Zelenskyi and Zaluzhnyi to respond to the 'boorish behavior' of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, who publicly responded to her statements.

As OBOZ.UA wrote, the scandal sparked protests by students of the university where Farion taught. On November 7, they demanded that the linguist be fired. On November 14, students held a crowded rally with this demand, which was eventually met.

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