In a realistic movie they'd speak Russian/Ukrainian. I think wrong accents in that case would be ok because only Ukrainians would notice (it won't air in russia I'm guessing).
But Netflix probably wanted well known actors instead, and know lots of people dislike reading subtitles, so chose to use english, which is understandable in some ways. Myself I find documentary(-style) movies in the original language to be much more believable, and reading subtitles is a price well worth paying for e.g. "Der Untergang" and similar.
> Der untergang is a german movie so they speak German.
Fair point. But I'm sure there are better examples where a film was made by people from country A, and set in country B using actors that speak B-language for realism.
> So are you saying only ukranians should be allowed to make movies about Chernobyl?
"Be allowed" I didn't say. I said it's an opportunity for extra realism you choose to use or not.
> So Americans can only make historical movies about events in America and only Scandinavians can make movies about Vikings?
I'm 100% sure that if Scandinavians did a movie about historical USA it would be in english. But it's beside the point. Again: it's just a choice whether you think the added trouble of finding actors speaking a language and having your audience read subtitles is worth it for the added realism.
But Netflix probably wanted well known actors instead, and know lots of people dislike reading subtitles, so chose to use english, which is understandable in some ways. Myself I find documentary(-style) movies in the original language to be much more believable, and reading subtitles is a price well worth paying for e.g. "Der Untergang" and similar.