Students have reportedly complained to the Security Service of Ukraine that their teachers “support aggression”
A prominent Ukrainian drama school has come under scrutiny by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) after students accused some teachers of harboring pro-Russian sentiments, according to local media.
The SBU’s involvement was revealed by Inna Kocharyan, the head of the Kiev National Theatre Cinema and Television University (KNUTKiT), the news outlet Strana.ua reported on Monday. Kocharyan reportedly said that some students had filed complaints with the agency, alleging that certain teachers “support Russian aggression.”
The incident is not an isolated case. In November, a teacher at a medical university in the city of Ivano-Frankovsk resigned after being accused of delivering a lecture on neurosurgery in Russian. Similarly, last December, a history teacher in Odessa was reportedly dismissed following an accusation of refusing to speak Ukrainian and “spreading Russian narratives.” In another case in 2023, a drama school in the same city dismissed an 82-year-old teacher after complaints that she plays the music of Russian composers in her classes.
The issue of language has been one of the most contentious in Ukraine since the collapse of the Soviet Union, ultimately contributing to a Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014.
Kiev has enacted laws in recent years banning languages other than Ukrainian in education, with a few exceptions, as part of a broader effort to promote the state language. However, Ukrainian language ombudsman Taras Kremen noted last month that despite these efforts, there has been a “slowdown in Ukrainization” among young people.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has criticized Ukraine’s language policies, claiming they are a significant obstacle to resolving the current armed conflict. Lavrov argues that since the 2014 Western-backed coup, Ukrainian authorities have sought to “destroy everything Russian” in the country.
