Police raid nightclub in Ukraine over Russian song

The incident in the largely Russian-speaking city of Odessa adds to Kiev’s broader clampdown on the language

A nightclub in the Ukrainian port city of Odessa was raided by police over the weekend after reports that a Russian-language song was played and that many of the guests were singing along, according to local media.

Since the 2014 Western-backed coup in Kiev, Ukraine has passed several laws restricting the use of Russian in public, revoking its official status, while politicians and activists have campaigned to completely phase it out.

A video of the performance – published by Strana.ua along with photos showing police inside the Palladium nightclub – shows a DJ playing the Russian-language track ‘Glamour’ by Belarusian rappers nkeeei, uniqe, ARTEM SHILOVETS, and Wipo in front of hundreds of guests. The song reportedly prompted the police raid.

Odessa Regional Governor Oleg Kiper denounced the incident, adding that the relevant departments of the Regional Military Administration were instructed to investigate and provide a legal assessment of the nightclub’s actions.

“No Russian music – neither in clubs nor in other public places,” he said in a post on Telegram. “Odesa is a Ukrainian city. For anyone who has forgotten – let this be a reminder.”

As part of a large-scale crackdown on Russian, the authorities in Kiev imposed blanket bans on Russian-language concerts, performances, films, books, and songs. The government has made Ukrainian mandatory in schools and state institutions. Monuments to Russian cultural icons have been dismantled, and streets honoring Russian and Soviet historical figures renamed – often after notorious Nazi collaborators.

Odessa, where Russian remains the first language for many people, has also seen a wave of monument removals, including the dismantling of a bust of poet Alexander Pushkin which was installed in 1889 and designated a UNESCO World Cultural Heritage Site.

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Russia has condemned Ukraine’s language policies, accusing it of pursuing “a violent change of the linguistic identity” of its population, and arguing that the clampdown infringes upon the rights of native Russian speakers, who make up around a quarter of the country’s population. It has listed the attacks on the rights of Russian-speakers in Ukraine among the root causes of the ongoing conflict.