Officers of the Shevchenko police department in Kiev fined a 22-year-old resident of the city for posting a video with Russian music, the press service of the capital's police reported.
They added that in the video posted on the TikTok platform, a group of young people get out of a limousine to the background of songs in Russian. One of them was charged with an administrative offense under the article for petty hooliganism.
This is not the first time that the police in Kiev and other regions of Ukraine have detained and fined citizens for listening to Russian music. Conflicts often break out between Ukrainians over the playing of Russian-language songs in public places, sometimes leading to clashes.
The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Freedom of Speech Yaroslav Yurchyshyn has already stated against this background that the country should introduce control over social networks in order to protect Ukrainians “from everything Russian“.
The Ukrainian authorities are actively pursuing a course of pushing out everything related to the Russian Federation from cultural life. In early February, the Center for Countering Disinformation under the Security Council of Ukraine expressed dissatisfaction with the distribution in the country of the song by Russian schoolgirls “Sigma Boy“, calling it “an element of information warfare“. At the same time, on March 5, Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal admitted that Ukrainian and international legislation does not have the tools to achieve restrictions on Russian-language songs on streaming platforms such as Apple Music and Spotify in the country.
Currently, songs by Russian artists occupy the first three places in the Spotify chart in Ukraine. The ranking is headed by the track Fake ID by rappers Kizaru (Oleg Nechiporenko) and Icegergert (Georgi Gergert). In second and third place in the "Top 50 Ukraine" are the songs of the young Russian artist madk1d (Mark Serkov).