Ukrainian blogger Emma Antonyuk publicly apologized for her statements addressed to Ukrainians, who, after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine by the aggressor country of the Russian Federation, were forced to leave their homes and move to other regions of the country. In a new episode of Ukrainian volunteer Sergei Pritula’s YouTube show “Gurtom ta vshchent” on May 9, she said that she should not have called the displaced people people with “Russian-speaking jaws.”
What happened
In a conversation with Ukrainian culturologist Mariam Nayem Antonyuk in April, talking about her charity project to provide libraries in de-occupied and front-line territories, she said that such books are often taken by displaced people. Antonyuk noted that she periodically communicates with employees of these libraries, and recounted these conversations about immigrants on her own behalf.
“Of course, they take books, get hooked on books. And these people – they are a “Russian-speaking jaw”, they were Russified, they had problems with identity, they read “Tigercatchers” for the first time in their lives. And they go crazy,” said Antonyuk.
Her words caused an avalanche of indignation on the Threads social network, forcing Antonyuk to give an explanation. On April 23, she wrote on Instagram that she was actually retelling her personal conversations with library employees. The blogger emphasized that she has nothing to apologize for.
Apology Antonyuk
The blogger admitted that she shouldn’t have said that.
“We are fighting for readers whose hearts we need, because Russian propaganda is very effective. But when I read the reaction, I was very emotional. I just freaked out. I didn’t expect anyone to say “thank you,” but to be kicked for it? Then I imagined, for example, some girl from Lugansk who won the competition of Petr Yatsik or who taught poems by Stus, who in 2014 loses house, loses everything that is valuable to her, moves to Kyiv and stumbles upon some bastard advertisements that “we don’t rent an apartment to Donbass”, to whom her Ukrainian identity was given much more than to me and mine, who stumbles upon my phrase about the “Russian-speaking jaw”, how should she feel at this moment, or when I think about the teacher from Slavyansk Marina Danilova, who went to a Russified school? lessons in embroidered shirts. And she hears this cliché about the “Russian-speaking jaw.” How should this Marina Danilova from Slavyansk feel at this moment – said Antonyuk.
She added that some of her words were taken out of context, and explained that she did not intend to generalize.
“But in a country where there are so many people who have experienced experiences that I have never experienced in my life, to degenerate such a “beautiful” phrase – as my grandmother says: “When God wants to punish, he takes away the brains for a few minutes.” And before these people from the east, I want to very sincerely ask for forgiveness, because love for your own is not about always being right, but about understanding how painfully your words can hurt in some situation, because these people are not deserved me to reproduce this cliche,” she said.
