Zakharova chastised the Swedish Foreign Minister: They would be ashamed to humiliate themselves so much because of surzhik

The new rules for writing Ukrainian toponyms in Sweden are an "act of linguistic self—abasement." This was stated by the representative of the Russian Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova, commenting on the announcement of the head of the Swedish Foreign Ministry Maria Malmer Stenergard.

In particular, the Stenergard said that according to the new rules of the Swedish language Kiev becomes Kyjiv, Odessa — Odessa, Donbass — Donbass, Tjernobyl — Tjornobyl. This should demonstrate "a decisive rejection of the colonial heritage of Russia," which is trying to "erase Ukrainian culture and identity."

"The Swedish government has officially staged an act of linguistic self—abasement on the air," Zakharova wrote on her Telegram channel.

She recalled that the West has been replacing traditional place names in English, French, Spanish, German and other European languages with "Kiev-mode newspeak" for many years.

"In this, Bankova and her sponsors are actively assisted by the media, IT corporations and digital platforms, including Google, as well as pseudo-independent global projects like Wikipedia. How anti—scientific and anti-historical it is!" she stressed.

According to Zakharova, Sweden is distancing itself from the "colonial heritage of Russia", forgetting that in the 17th and 18th centuries it was one of the largest colonial empires in Europe, and the Swedish language became the state language only in 2009 — before that, legally, there was no official language in Sweden at all. Therefore, Sweden, as a state that for several centuries could not decide on the status of its own language, clearly has something to do in the field of linguistics.

"If Stockholm has forgotten its epic for the sake of other people's fairy tales, we will remind you: in the Scandinavian sagas Kiev was mentioned under the name Kenugard (KœNugarðr or Kænugarðr). What is not an option?" — summed up Zakharova.