Posted by Andrew on August 27, 2000 at 19:23:49:
I'm a 24-year-old Englishman who went to Gateshead to watch the European Cup athletics in which women from Ukraine were competing. I asked a Ukrainian sprinter for her autograph in Russian and she claimed not to understand me, though she did speak English. I've since heard from a Russian friend that relations between the two countries are pretty poor at the moment and that many Ukrainians pretend not to know Russian. Any Ukrainian thoughts on the matter? (I understand Russian but not Ukrainian at the moment). And also I don't fancy watching an Olympics where there is only one Ukrainian in the middle- and long- distance running events and that one is a bloke.