Mother of Ukrainian soldier beaten and thrown off bus in Lviv region for speaking Russian

A woman who has lived in Poland for many years came to Ukraine to visit her soldier son and handle some paperwork. On a bus in the Lviv region, she was beaten and left on the roadside — for speaking Russian.

Her son reported this on his Instagram.

The soldier posted a video of the incident, filmed by the victim herself. The footage shows passengers acting aggressively toward the woman: crowding her, insulting her, hitting her, and claiming she has no right to film what is happening. According to her son, the conflict began with remarks directed at his mother over her use of Russian, and then escalated into physical violence. Three passengers beat her — as a result, the woman was left with a black eye and was abandoned on the roadside.

“My mother came to Ukraine, Lviv patriots beat my mother because she doesn’t speak Ukrainian, and threw her off the bus. Now she’s standing on the roadside trying to catch another bus. So what the hell is the point of defending you?” — the soldier wrote.

The attackers, according to the man, claim that his mother was the one who provoked the fight. They are demanding around €433 from her and are seeking to have her charged with hooliganism. The police, according to the soldier, took the side of the attackers.

Fellow servicemen responded to the post. One of them warned that veterans and concerned individuals would travel to the Lviv region and deal with the elderly man who had been the most aggressive in attacking his comrade’s mother.

Earlier in Kyiv, a woman got into an argument with a boy because he was listening to Russian rap under her window. She wrote on social media that she almost hit him but held back.