“We are surprised that in the fourth year of the terrible war of the Russian Federation against Ukraine, a Finnish teacher chose a Russian song,” the message says. “For Ukrainian children and the entire Ukrainian society, this issue is extremely sensitive, since in its war against Ukraine, Russia systematically uses language and culture as an instrument of aggression.”
The embassy noted that Ukrainian children have the right to a safe space, including at school, without imposing the culture of the occupying country.
“We believe that in the context of the terrible war unleashed by Russia, the conscious or unconscious continuation of the popularization and study of Russian culture harms the efforts of the international community to restore justice and encourages the Russian regime to further terror,” the statement said.
The Ukrainian diplomatic mission expressed gratitude to the Finnish media for drawing attention to this situation.
Context
On November 5, Yle reported that 11-year-old Ukrainian Nicole at the Storängen school in Finnish Espoo was forced to sing the song “Kalinka” during a music lesson, when children were getting acquainted with the music of the aggressor country of the Russian Federation. According to her mother, Nicole explained to the teacher that she was Ukrainian and did not want to use Russian, but she replied that “they don’t talk about the war at school.” The daughter understood the teacher’s statement to mean that she would receive a bad grade for not singing the song, so she sang, Nicole’s mother said.
The director of the school where the Ukrainian student said in a comment to Yle that the institution adheres to the national curriculum.
Yle noted that Nicole’s mother has lived in Finland for a long time, and her husband is Finnish. Nicole was born in Finland.
