"It is a war between Pushkin and Shevchenko": Yefrosynina explains why she and other stars who spoke Russian until 2022 should be forgiven

Ukrainian TV presenter Masha Yefrosynina has set the record straight about the language scandals she has been involved in over the past two years and explained how her stance after the annexation of Crimea differed from her current one. Until 2022, the artist could still address the public in Russian, but now she calls herself "the most aggressive Ukrainian."

She believes that Russian-speaking stars can be understood and forgiven because before the full-scale war, society tolerated bilingualism or even ignorance of their native language. The celebrity spoke about this in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda.

Poet Serhii Zhadan once said, discussing the confrontation of cultures, "This war is a war between Pushkin and Shevchenko, whether we want it or not." Masha Yefrosynina agrees with this statement now. By the way, she does not read Russian authors.

Commenting on the scandal with singer Khrystyna Solovii, who in an interview called the host responsible for the blood of Ukrainians because of the promotion of the Russian language in the media after 2014, Yefrosynina emphasized that she was not raised to hate everything Russian. This is one of the reasons why the artist took a long time to become a Ukrainian speaker.

"But today I want nothing to do with Russians in general, with this country, with this language. I want to separate myself, my children, and all future generations. And that's how I will raise them," the star said.

When asked why Yefrosynina did not abandon the Russian language back in 2014, when her native Crimea was occupied, the host admitted that the language issue did not cause "doubts" inside her at the time and that the Ukrainian woman's entire career path has been marked by tolerance for Russian.

"This is also the history of our country, and I am also a part of this history. I can be responsible for my actions. The issue of language has not been an acute problem in my life. I strongly suggest that we think about the amnesty for those times. This is the history of half the country. It deserves a psychological amnesty. But today, if we see 'Yes, I'm Russian' in second place on Spotify, it's f***ed up, and people should be put in jail for it," the host said.

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