"I'm tired of seeing our Russian language being dishonored." 7-time Ukrainian athletics champion urges not to be ashamed to speak Russian

7-time Ukrainian high jump champion Oksana Okuneva has called for Ukrainians not to be divided on the basis of language and to respect their choice to speak Russian. The 34-year-old native of Mykolaiv, who won the 2017 Universiade, posted an emotional post on Instagram by Ukrainian Athletics.

Okuneva admitted that she was "tired of seeing posts about how the Russian language is being dishonored" and appealed to "nationalists from Western Ukraine."

OBOZ.UA quotes the text of the message. The author's style and spelling have been preserved.

"Based on historical facts, the Ukrainian and Russian languages evolved from the Old Russian language. The Slavs were divided into tongues and each had its own dialects and accents. Most of the indigenous citizens of Ukraine, and their ancestors who lived before the emergence of Ukraine, spoke and still speak Russian. The Russian language was not invented by Putin, Yeltsin, or 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 by language," Okuneva wrote.

Okuneva later deleted the post on Facebook. After a while, the post disappeared from the Ukrainian Athletics page as well.

Earlier, Liza, the wife of former Ukrainian youth football player Maksym Tretyakov, communicated with her followers on Instagram and clearly stated that she was not going to switch to Ukrainian and would speak Russian. In addition, Liza accused the online user of hypocrisy.

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