Emma Antonuk referred to IDPs from the east as ‘Russian-speaking mouths’ and faced a wave of online abuse
Who is Emma Antonuk
Emma Antonuk is a Ukrainian journalist, interviewer and media personality who worked in television (notably on STB and Ukrainska Pravda), and later became known as a blogger and creator of the YouTube channels ‘Palaye’ and ‘No One Will Watch This’, where she hosts
What scandal has Emma Antonuk found herself in?
Emma recently found herself at the centre of a wave of criticism following an interview on her YouTube channel, where, when asked about a hypothetical $7 billion, she stated that she would spend it on purchasing Ukrainian books for libraries, particularly in the eastern regions, citing the problem of Russian propaganda’s influence.
Further outrage was caused by her use of a derogatory term for IDPs as “Russian-speaking jaws”, which many people from eastern Ukraine perceived as a humiliating and stereotypical label.
“When will this narrative finally disappear – that we in the east didn’t know or read Ukrainian? How can we get rid of it?” reads a post on the Threads platform by kozljuk_yuliya_mua.
Emma also noted that in certain regions of eastern Ukraine, awareness of Ukrainian literature, particularly the works of Ivan Bahrianyi, is lower. In response, social media users began sharing their own stories en masse about Ukrainian education, culture and reading in the eastern regions, refuting such generalisations and accusing Antonyuk of spreading discriminatory narratives.
"More labels! Slap more labels on us: on my Ukrainian-speaking grandmother, who lived her whole life in Donbas and read Marko Vovchok, and on my mum, who adored Bagriany and told me about Medvedchuk, who was Stus’s ‘lawyer’,” writes _dontowka_ in a reply on the Threads platform.
How did Emma react to the backlash?
The young woman responded to the wave of criticism on social media following her controversial remarks, stating that her position had been taken out of context and misinterpreted as contempt for internally displaced persons. She highlighted her long-standing work on the charity initiative "The Difference Is", aimed at providing libraries – particularly those near the front line and in rural areas – with Ukrainian books.
According to her, this project required significant resources, constant communication with libraries and daily involvement over several years. Amid the criticism, Antonyuk announced the end of the project, noting that she no longer plans to continue it after four years of work. She thanked her partners, notably "Knyharnya Ye", as well as readers and librarians from various regions of Ukraine for their support and cooperation. Concluding her statement, she reacted sharply to the online abuse, summing up the situation with the phrase: "Let the haters on the forums deal with this."
