diff --git a/src/parse/asp/builtins.go b/src/parse/asp/builtins.go
index 541555f349..fe1c055042 100644
--- a/src/parse/asp/builtins.go
+++ b/src/parse/asp/builtins.go
@@ -397,7 +397,7 @@ func objLen(obj pyObject) pyInt {
 	case pyFrozenDict:
 		return pyInt(len(t.pyDict))
 	case pyString:
-		return pyInt(len(t))
+		return pyInt(len([]rune(t)))
 	}
 	panic("object of type " + obj.Type() + " has no len()")
 }
diff --git a/src/parse/asp/interpreter_test.go b/src/parse/asp/interpreter_test.go
index 83c17e8bbd..690991f0cb 100644
--- a/src/parse/asp/interpreter_test.go
+++ b/src/parse/asp/interpreter_test.go
@@ -342,6 +342,21 @@ func TestInterpreterLen(t *testing.T) {
 	s, err := parseFile("src/parse/asp/test_data/interpreter/len.build")
 	assert.NoError(t, err)
 	assert.EqualValues(t, "sync", s.Lookup("y"))
+	assert.EqualValues(t, 4, s.Lookup("l1"))
+	assert.EqualValues(t, 6, s.Lookup("l2"))
+	assert.EqualValues(t, 5, s.Lookup("l3"))
+	assert.EqualValues(t, 2, s.Lookup("l4"))
+}
+
+func TestInterpreterIndex(t *testing.T) {
+	t.Run("String indexing", func(t *testing.T) {
+		s, err := parseFile("src/parse/asp/test_data/interpreter/index_string.build")
+		assert.NoError(t, err)
+		assert.EqualValues(t, pyString("l"), s.Lookup("c1"))
+		assert.EqualValues(t, pyString("n"), s.Lookup("c2"))
+		assert.EqualValues(t, pyString("\u043d"), s.Lookup("c3"))
+		assert.EqualValues(t, pyString("\u0637"), s.Lookup("c4"))
+	})
 }
 
 func TestInterpreterFStringDollars(t *testing.T) {
diff --git a/src/parse/asp/objects.go b/src/parse/asp/objects.go
index 10cb9e827e..28ebf1ebf4 100644
--- a/src/parse/asp/objects.go
+++ b/src/parse/asp/objects.go
@@ -289,7 +289,7 @@ func (s pyString) Operator(operator Operator, operand pyObject) pyObject {
 	case NotIn:
 		return newPyBool(!strings.Contains(string(s), string(s2)))
 	case Index:
-		return pyString(s[pyIndex(s, operand, false)])
+		return pyString([]rune(s)[pyIndex(s, operand, false)])
 	}
 	panic("Unknown operator for string")
 }
diff --git a/src/parse/asp/test_data/interpreter/index_string.build b/src/parse/asp/test_data/interpreter/index_string.build
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..ca14dd4052
--- /dev/null
+++ b/src/parse/asp/test_data/interpreter/index_string.build
@@ -0,0 +1,28 @@
+# U+006C : LATIN SMALL LETTER L
+# U+0069 : LATIN SMALL LETTER I
+# U+006E : LATIN SMALL LETTER N
+# U+0065 : LATIN SMALL LETTER E
+s1 = "line"
+c1 = s1[0]
+
+# U+006C : LATIN SMALL LETTER L
+# U+0069 : LATIN SMALL LETTER I
+# U+0301 : COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT {stress mark; Greek oxia, tonos}
+# U+006E : LATIN SMALL LETTER N
+# U+0065 : LATIN SMALL LETTER E
+# U+0061 : LATIN SMALL LETTER A
+s2 = "línea"
+c2 = s2[3]
+
+# U+043B : CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER EL
+# U+0438 : CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER I
+# U+043D : CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER EN
+# U+0438 : CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER I
+# U+044F : CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER YA
+s3 = "линия"
+c3 = s3[2]
+
+# U+062E : ARABIC LETTER KHAH
+# U+0637 : ARABIC LETTER TAH
+s4 = "خط"
+c4 = s4[1]
diff --git a/src/parse/asp/test_data/interpreter/len.build b/src/parse/asp/test_data/interpreter/len.build
index 0e99249898..446b833bb5 100644
--- a/src/parse/asp/test_data/interpreter/len.build
+++ b/src/parse/asp/test_data/interpreter/len.build
@@ -1,2 +1,31 @@
 x = 'golang.org/x/sync'
 y = x[len('golang.org/x/'):]
+
+# U+006C : LATIN SMALL LETTER L
+# U+0069 : LATIN SMALL LETTER I
+# U+006E : LATIN SMALL LETTER N
+# U+0065 : LATIN SMALL LETTER E
+s1 = "line"
+l1 = len(s1)
+
+# U+006C : LATIN SMALL LETTER L
+# U+0069 : LATIN SMALL LETTER I
+# U+0301 : COMBINING ACUTE ACCENT {stress mark; Greek oxia, tonos}
+# U+006E : LATIN SMALL LETTER N
+# U+0065 : LATIN SMALL LETTER E
+# U+0061 : LATIN SMALL LETTER A
+s2 = "línea"
+l2 = len(s2)
+
+# U+043B : CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER EL
+# U+0438 : CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER I
+# U+043D : CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER EN
+# U+0438 : CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER I
+# U+044F : CYRILLIC SMALL LETTER YA
+s3 = "линия"
+l3 = len(s3)
+
+# U+062E : ARABIC LETTER KHAH
+# U+0637 : ARABIC LETTER TAH
+s4 = "خط"
+l4 = len(s4)