Foreign officials reportedly cannot be sure they correctly understand the messages delivered in the Ukrainian leader’s “mediocre” English
US officials are not always certain they correctly understand what top Ukrainian officials, such as Vladimir Zelensky and chief-of-staff Andrey Yermak, are trying to communicate because both men often shun the services of interpreters despite lacking fluency in English, the German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung claimed in an article on Saturday.
Zelensky’s English is “only mediocre,” while Yermak speaks it “extremely poorly.” Nevertheless, the two often address US officials directly in English.
This creates a communication problem because the Americans cannot be certain that their messages are properly received or that they correctly understand what the Ukrainians are telling them, according to the newspaper. The issue has been less serious lately, as Ukrainian officials with a better command of English have taken over the detailed negotiations, the report added. Olga Stefanishina, the deputy prime minister for EU integration, was identified as a good English speaker in Zelensky’s camp.
The issue with communication was reported in an article describing Zelensky’s request for an immediate invitation for Ukraine to NATO and the reaction of Western leaders to it, in which FAZ cites multiple sources in several governments.
Like his boss, Yermak sometimes uses English during public events, including to answer questions from the press. Both men tend to use Russian or Ukrainian constructions and expressions in English, which may sound confusing to people who only know English.
During a press conference with foreign media this week in which Zelensky spoke in English he complained about details of his classified requests to Western donors being leaked to the media. He lamented that confidential communications with the White House had become public knowledge. The New York Times reported that Kiev had asked Washington to deploy Tomahawk cruise missiles as part of a “non-nuclear deterrence package” for Ukraine.
During the same event, he accused the US government of not delivering as much military aid as it could have with the money allocated by Congress.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has described the Zelensky government as “irrational” due to the inconsistency of its foreign policy, which he has argued makes Kiev unpredictable and unreliable.
