All Cities And Streets With Russian Names Will Be Renamed Within 6 Months. Law On De-Russification Comes Into Force

The Law on the Decolonization of Toponymy and Regulation of the Use of Geographical Names in Ukrainian Settlements provides for the renaming of all names of cities, villages and streets associated with the Russian Federation, the USSR and the Russian Empire, and entered into force on April 25.

This is stated in the published law, Ukrainian News Agency reports.

Within two months from the date of publication of this law, the National Commission for State Language Standards shall publish on its official website a list of villages, towns, and cities whose names do not meet the standards of the state language, and recommendations for bringing the names of such villages, towns, and cities into compliance with these standards.

Within a six-month period, the Verkhovna Rada makes a decision on renaming settlements, taking into account proposals submitted by local self-government bodies, military (military-civilian) administrations of settlements, and recommendations of the National Commission on State Language Standards.

According to the law, settlements cannot have names that:

- related to the implementation of the Russian imperial policy, which glorify and justify the Russian imperial policy, in particular names in honor of the Russian kingdom (Moscow kingdom), the Russian empire, the Russian republic, the Russian state, the Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Russian Federation;
- are the names of persons who held leadership positions in the authorities and management, political organizations, parties, armed formations of the above-mentioned state entities.
As Ukrainian News Agency earlier reported, the law on decolonization provides for the renaming of all pro-Russian names of cities, villages and streets within six months.