Moscow to abolish teaching of Ukrainian language in occupied regions
This is due to the "changing geopolitical situation in the world," the daily said, citing an Education Ministry draft curriculum.
Among the reasons given by Russian President Vladimir Putin for launching the full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago, was the alleged suppression of the Russian language in Ukraine. He pledged that Russia would behave differently and would protect the use of Ukrainian.
Until now, Ukrainian has been an obligatory subject in schools in those parts of the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhya regions occupied by Russian forces.
It has been an optional subject in the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, and in Crimea. The same goes for Bashkortostan in southern Russia.
The new curriculum does not provide for the teaching of Ukrainian at all.
Attempts by US President Donald Trump to launch talks to end the war have stalled, with Moscow rejecting a ceasefire along the current front line.
At the recent St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Putin described Russians and Ukrainians as a single people, saying that Ukraine as a whole belonged to Russia.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Gizmodo
a few seconds ago
- Gizmodo
The White House Keeps a ‘Loyalty' Scorecard for Companies: Report
The White House has created a spreadsheet that rates hundreds of companies for their loyalty, according to a new report from Axios. And while that may not be entirely shocking news, given Donald Trump's way of doing business, it's worth stepping back and asking how news of a loyalty scorecard by a sitting president would've been received in the pre-Trump era. The rankings on the loyalty spreadsheet are currently determined by a given company's perceived support of the so-called Big Beautiful Bill, a budget package that passed in July and is poised to strip healthcare from at least 17 million people while lowering taxes on the wealthiest Americans. That support is gauged by social media posts, press releases, ads, and more, according to Axios. The spreadsheet reportedly contains 553 companies and trade organizations, each getting one of three ratings of support for Trump: Strong, moderate, or low. Examples of companies that were 'good partners,' according to Axios, include Uber, DoorDash, United, Delta, AT&T, and Cisco. And while it's entirely possible the rankings are solely determined by public displays of support, it's impossible to ignore the financial contributions those companies have often made to Trump. AT&T, Delta, United, Uber, and Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi each contributed $1 million to Trump's inaugural committee, according to CNBC. DoorDash contributed $100,000. Cisco didn't donate to Trump's inauguration, but spoke glowingly about the president shortly after he was elected in 2024. Trump has insisted on fealty to his far-right agenda and has set out to crush anyone who doesn't fall in line. That includes some of the largest companies in America, which have dutifully met with Trump to kiss the ring and sing his praises. Apple CEO Tim Cook, who also donated $1 million to Trump, visited the White House to announce new spending in the U.S. and even gave the president a piece of glass with the Apple logo sporting a 24-karat gold base. It's the kind of tacky gesture that Trump loves—symbolism that makes it clear the king is in charge. Axios quotes an unnamed White House source who describes the loyalty spreadsheet as an 'evolving' document, and support for other initiatives beyond the Big Beautiful Bill will be included in the future. And Axios notes it will be used whenever lobbyists approach the Trump regime with requests. 'If groups/companies want to start advocating more now for the tax bill or additional administration priorities, we will take that into account in our grading,' the White House official is quoted as telling Axios. It all sounds like a mafia-style operation, of course. But that's no secret. Trump has always been a transactional president and isn't shy about shaking down anyone who he thinks isn't sufficiently deferential to his whims. Even if Trump doesn't like someone, he seems willing to bring them back into the 'loyal' camp as long as they play along. For example, Trump recently criticized the CEO of Intel, Lip-Bu Tan, calling him 'highly conflicted' and insisting he needed to resign over supposed ties to China. Tan denied the allegations, met with Trump, and now we have reports from Bloomberg that the U.S. government might take a stake in Intel and might use funds from the Chips Act to do it. We don't know exactly what happened there, but we can make some educated guesses. If you want to do business in the U.S., you need to pay your tithe to Trump's empire in one way or another. Unfortunately, Trump's empire isn't just his collection of private businesses these days. He sees the entire country and all its wealth as his for the taking. Trump is also working on getting a 15% cut from Nvidia and AMD on chips shipped to China in what's being characterized as a 'revenue-sharing agreement.' That deal seems unconstitutional, according to Fortune, but that doesn't seem like it will matter in the long run. Trump's government flagrantly breaks the law, there's sometimes a protracted legal fight, and he keeps pushing boundaries while the courts that are stacked with his own judges debate the finer points. The U.S. public was absolutely scandalized when it learned of President Richard Nixon's enemies list in 1973. But in the second Trump era, this kind of loyalty ranking from the White House is just a tiny drop in an ocean of bizarre news that defies the norms of another age.
The Hill
a few seconds ago
- The Hill
Ukraine lawmaker: ‘We do not quite believe that the diplomatic solution is possible'
Ukrainian Member of Parliament Kira Rudik said Friday that leaders in her country do not see an immediate diplomatic path to peace hours ahead of the U.S.-Russia summit in Alaska. 'We do not quite believe that the diplomatic solution is possible here. And we have been saying this since the day one,' Rudik said during an appearance on CNN's 'News Central.' She said security guarantees are Ukraine's main concern after being invaded by Russia in 2014 and 2022. 'Until you know, what is the way to make sure that [Russian President Vladimir] Putin will keep his part of the bargain, you cannot get to the table with him…,' Rudik said. 'There has not been a single fact up until right now that would confirm that he wants to end the war, that he is ready to end the war. He continues attacking our cities. There is still push on the frontline, and the air raid siren in Kyiv went off just a couple of hours ago,' she added. Ukraine also successfully launched a Thursday drone strike on portions of southern Russia amid slated peace talks with Trump. Rudik said Ukraine remains a frontline barrier to Putin's attempt to occupy land across Europe. 'The truth is, right now, Ukraine is providing security guarantees to Europe because we are basically standing in between Europe and Russia. And Russia didn't give up their ideas of restoring Soviet Union, as we have clearly seen today and heard from dictator Putin many times beforehand,' Rudik told CNN, adding that 'without the security guarantees, none of the talks will make any sense.' 'Without the idea of how Europe and the United States can be standing against Russia for European security, again, these — all the ideas about peace, all the ideas about President Trump getting the Nobel prize for it, they will be just talks and will not lead to any serious conclusions,' she continued.
The Hill
a few seconds ago
- The Hill
Trump's Orwellian revisionist history rewrites America's reality
On Aug. 4, the National Park Service announced that it will restore and reinstall the statue of Confederate Gen. Albert Pike in Washington. This decision is yet another round in the ongoing fight over the American past. Trump and his supporters want to substitute a comprehensive U.S. history with a purely celebratory one. For the MAGA movement, 'make America great again' means proclaiming that America always was great and expunging from the historical record any fact, event or idea that tarnishes the image of a glorious civilization stretching from 'sea to shining sea.' Authoritarian regimes have always understood the importance of history and tried to control it. 'For Russians, the past is certain; it's the future that is unpredictable,' a Soviet proverb maintains. The adage refers to the practice of subordinating history to an ideology with a vision of a utopian future but no clear path to get there. In his dystopian novel, ' 1984,' inspired both by the Spanish Civil War and Stalinism, George Orwell developed the concept further. 'Who controls the past controls the future,' he wrote. 'Who controls the present controls the past.' When his imaginary state Oceania made peace with Eurasia and went to war with East Asia, its historians and propagandists quickly rewrote their narratives to proclaim that the new enemy had always been the enemy. The MAGA assault on historical truth began in 2019, when a group of scholars led by Nicole Hannah-Jones published the ' 1619 Project.' Trump and his followers interpreted the project's call for a more inclusive historical narrative that acknowledged the evils of slavery and the continuing problem of systemic racism as an existential threat to their cherished vision of American exceptionalism. The president responded by creating the ' 1776 Advisory Commission, ' with a mandate to rebut the '1619 Project' and promote civics education 'to encourage citizens to embrace and cultivate love of country.' The commission's report celebrates the U.S. as the 'most just and glorious country in all of human history.' When Trump left office in 2021, 35 states took up the cause of promoting a celebratory version of U.S. history, passing 'gag laws' that limited public school teachers' ability to discuss slavery, Jim Crow and systemic racism as well as gay and transgender issues. Trump returned to office in January determined to promulgate his preferred version of history with a vengeance. On March 27, he issued an executive order with the provocative title, 'Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History.' It declared the administration's policy 'to restore Federal sites dedicated to history, including parks and museums,' and 'solemn and uplifting public monuments.' Its stated goal is 'to remind Americans of our extraordinary heritage, consistent progress toward becoming a more perfect Union, and unmatched record of advancing liberty, prosperity and human flourishing.' The president vowed 'to restore the Smithsonian Institution to its rightful place as a symbol of inspiration and American greatness.' The order prohibits the Smithsonian's museums from spending money on 'exhibits or programs that degrade shared American values, divide Americans based on race' and demands that the American Women's History Museum 'not recognize men as women in any respect.' On Aug. 12, the White House sent a letter notifying the Smithsonian Institute that it would be reviewing 'selected Smithsonian museums and exhibitions' to insure they 'align with the president's directive to celebrate American exceptionalism.' The push for a celebratory version of American History did not stop with the Smithsonian. The order also required the secretary of the Interior to ensure that public monuments, statues, makers and memorials 'do not contain descriptions, depictions or other content that inappropriately disparage Americans past or living (including persons living in colonial times).' The monuments should 'instead focus on the greatness of the achievements and progress of the American people or, with respect to natural features, the beauty, abundance and grandeur of the American landscape.' In compliance with the order, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum instructed staff under his jurisdiction to post notices instructing visitors to report 'any signs or other information that are negative about either past or living Americans or that fail to emphasize the beauty, grandeur, and abundance of landscapes and other natural features.' At the president's direction, the Pentagon has restored the names of seven military bases originally named for Confederate generals. The Department of Defense made the change using a clever workaround. For example, Ft. Benning, Georgia, originally named for Confederate Brigadier Gen. Henry L. Benning, is now named for Corporal Fred C. Benning, who won the Distinguished Service Cross in WWI. Statues and other Confederate symbols have been at the center of the debate over the American past since the 2015 massacre of parishioners at the African American Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina by white supremacist Dylan Roof. Amid a storm of protest, the South Carolina legislature voted to remove the Confederate Battle Flag from the state house dome, where it had been raised in 1961 to protest the civil rights movement. The debate intensified with the murder of George Floyd and the birth of the Black Lives Matter movement. It came to a head in Charlottesville, Virginia in August 2017, when white supremacists protesting the city council's decision to remove a statue of Robert E. Lee clashed with counterprotestors, killing one of them. The confrontation reveals why history matters. To liberate themselves from oppression, marginalized people must reclaim their past from the oppressors who seek to hide it. Most Confederate monuments were erected after 1890 — not to memorialize lives lost during the Civil War, but to assert white power in the Jim Crow era. American history should not be celebratory nor iconoclastic, but inclusive. We can recognize the accomplishments of founders of the republic and still acknowledge that they lived off the proceeds of human bondage. Those two truths are not mutually exclusive. Both are part of the American story and should be included in the history we teach our children.
