The Verkhovna Rada passed a law banning geographic names associated with Russia and its imperial policy

Author:
Sofiia Telishevska
Date:

The Verkhovna Rada (Ukrainian Parliament) adopted amendments to the law "On Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Russian Imperial Policy in Ukraine and Decolonization of Toponymy." A total of 248 MPs supported the document.

The MP Yaroslav Zheleznyak reported this.

The law recognizes as criminal and condemns the Russian imperial policy, and also prohibits the production and propaganda of the corresponding symbols.

It is also forbidden to assign names that glorify the imperial policy of Russia, the Russian Federation itself, or its figures to geographical objects, legal entities, and objects of property rights. The purpose of the law is to return to Ukraine names that highlight its own history, and not glorify Soviet or Russian ones.

"Ukraine needs its own history, its own values, not invented in Moscow or somewhere in the Ural bunkers! Therefore, decommunization should be followed by de-imperialization or decolonization and the complete restoration of Ukrainian historical-national toponymy, distorted beyond recognition and erased from our map by the former totalitarian regime," the explanatory note reads.