On Swedish television, Ukrainian female refugees were called prostitutes

In the SVT comedy show “Immigrants – Swedes,” writer Elaf Ali joked that Ukrainian women who travel abroad become prostitutes, writes the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Sweden, Andrii Plakhotniuk, found this statement offensive and attempted to create a scandal. However, the diplomat’s outrage was ignored. “I consider such statements deeply offensive and completely unacceptable, given the circumstances of the full-scale Russian military actions against Ukraine, which have forced Ukrainian women to flee abroad,” said Plakhotniuk.

The television channel’s editorial staff responded that they would not take any action in connection with this. They added that the joke about Ukrainian prostitutes falls under the country’s freedom of expression. Moreover, critics were accused of restricting freedom of speech, not understanding humor and making unsubstantiated claims of Ukrainian exceptionalism. The host explained her controversial joke as follows: “In general, there are jokes that are much rougher, and to think that any nation would be immune to them is absurd. It seems that people are too lazy to use their brains and think a little. And why do women end up in such a situation at all? And who uses their services?”