Russia Ukrainian parliament renames more than 300 localities

The Ukrainian parliament has renamed a total of 327 localities in the country.

One of the authors of the law, Roman Losynskyj, announced on Facebook that the measure was intended to rid the country of its Soviet and Russian heritage. He wrote of a "historic decision", which will be followed by further renaming.

According to MP Jaroslaw Schelesnjak, 281 MPs voted in favor of the legislative initiative. There are 450 MPs in total.

Losynskyj cited Novomoskovsk, Krasnohrad, Druzhba and Pervomaysk, which are to be called Samar, Berestin, Khutir-Mykhailivskiy and Sokolohirsk in future, as examples of the renaming that has now been decided.

While the pre-revolutionary names were used for some settlements, Novomoskovsk, for example, which has been known as Moscow since 1794, was given a completely new name.

In previous years, a number of cities were renamed to commemorate Soviet party leaders. The city of Dnipropetrovsk, for example, was renamed Dnipro in honor of the then Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Republic, Grigory Petrovsky, Kirovohrad (after the party leader Sergei Kirov) became Kropyvnytskyi and Artyomovsk (after the revolutionary Artyom) became Bakhmut.

The renaming campaign, which according to its authors is intended to liberate Russia from its colonial heritage, is not without controversy. On Tuesday, several MPs blocked the lectern during the debate in order to postpone the vote.

SDA