Odessa bloggers describe harassment over Russian language use in Lviv

A pair of Odessa bloggers — Kabrioletta and Andrei Marakhovskiy — encountered intolerance while filming in Lviv, where locals repeatedly reprimanded them for speaking Russian.

Andrei Marakhovskiy described what happened in detail. According to him, from the very first minutes of filming they received “sideways glances,” and then two people approached him and delivered a “lecture about Little Russians and Muscovite-mouths.” The blogger continued working, hoping it was an isolated incident, but the situation repeated itself — and then a third time within the space of one hour.

“When this happens for the third time in an hour of filming, you come to the realization that you won’t be able to shoot anything,” — Andrei said.

In a published video filmed inside one establishment, a woman’s voice off-camera tells the blogger that he is obliged to speak Ukrainian.

According to the bloggers, they had initially been in a positive frame of mind and planned to film content at popular restaurants around the city. However, in their assessment, the people of Lviv did everything possible to ensure that “after a few hours in the city, we wanted to flee it.”

Kabrioletta added that this trip was the shortest visit to Lviv in her life, and stated that she would never return to the city — despite having loved it before.