Portugal’s police officers to study Ukrainian

The Union of Ukrainians in Portugal will host Ukrainian language courses for the tourist police station of Lisbon, the head of the organization, Chairman of the Council of the Ukrainian Union in Portugal, Pavlo Sadokha, said.

“This is a significant event because until now, the “Russkiy mir” [literally “Russian world,” the idea that Russian culture completely dominates all other civilizations] has convinced the Portuguese society that all Ukrainians speak Russian and that the Ukrainian language is only a dialect used in the west of Ukraine. Now, after the great suffering, our thousand-year-old language is gaining subjectivity in EU countries,” Sadokha said.

This is an important step towards European integration and introducing the Ukrainian language as an official language in EU countries, the head of the Union of Ukrainians in Portugal added. Qualified teachers will teach the law enforcement officers of Lisbon.

“Thanks to the close cooperation of the Union of Ukrainians in Portugal with the Ivan Franko Lviv National University … in 2021, Ukrainian language courses were organized as a foreign language with the appropriate state certification in Ukraine,” Sadokha explained.

The union is already fully ready to conduct lessons for police officers. Currently, law enforcement officers will decide on the schedule of language courses.

It should be noted that the use of Russian in Portugal creates significant difficulties for Ukrainians. In January of this year, the Union of Ukrainians addressed an open letter to the Prosecutor General of the country to prevent cases when Russians (or representatives of other nationalities) with a pronounced political position that justifies Russia’s aggression was involved in the translation of criminal cases in which Ukrainian citizens are parties. The content of Ukrainians’ statements was significantly distorted, affecting the case’s course.