Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky has signed a law on the “decolonisation” of toponyms, banning geographical names that have connections with Russia, the website of Ukraine’s parliament says.
From now on, no geographical objects in Ukraine will be allowed to be named after dates, people or events related to Russian or Soviet history.
The law also introduces a ban to name things after historical figures who waged aggression against Ukraine or other countries or enforced totalitarian policy, including on Ukraine’s occupied territories.
“The names of Russian cities, villages, streets, rivers, lakes, mountains on the toponymic map of Ukraine are the fifth column in our social life, they are a sharp knife that lurks over our existence and affects our consciousness every day, trying to dull the perception of civilisation, to slow down the development of Ukrainian worldview and Ukrainian identity,” the explanatory note to the bill says.
The new law will affect both new and existing toponyms. Volodymyr Viatrovych, an MP, says it will come into force three months after it is signed. After this, local authorities will have six months to “clear the public realm” from Russia-related toponyms.
Legal entities will have one month to get rid of Russian symbols from their names, documents, and brand marks. Mentions of Russia should cease to exist in trade names in three months.
“This is a systemic document that liberates our country from the markers of ‘the Russian world’. Ukraine will no longer have names and representations devoted to Suvorov and Kuztuzov, Pushkin or Bulgakov, Russian cities or conquests. Valuable monuments will be handed to museums,” Viatrovych says.
After Russia started its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, a new wave of renaming Russia- or Soviet-related toponyms emerged in the country.
