The incident in the store occurred at the end of December, according to Ukrainian media. The customer approached the cashier and asked to show him the hand cream. The saleswoman, as required by law, began talking to him in Ukrainian. However, the client could not understand in any way what a "life—giving" cream (nourishing cream - editor's note.) was and asked to show him a moisturizing one. Then the cashier switched to Russian with the client to continue serving him.
At this time, another visitor to the store was enraged when she heard the Russian speech. She insulted the seller, calling her "mentally retarded", and then took out her phone camera and began filming what was happening on video.
Other visitors stood up for the seller, after which the scandalous visitor left.
At the same time, after the publicity of this scandal, the cashier was fined. The protocol of the Language Ombudsman notes that according to the law "On ensuring the functioning of the Ukrainian language as the state language", service in stores should be strictly in the state language. At the same time, the law stipulates that at the request of the client, the seller can serve the client in any other language, if this satisfies both parties. Despite the fact that the store's customer himself asked the seller to switch to Russian, since he did not understand Ukrainian terms, the cashier was still fined.
In the explanatory note after this incident, the seller admitted that her Ukrainian language is not very good yet, but she is striving to improve it.