Kiev [Ukraine], September 20: The Ukrainian parliament has renamed a total of 327 localities in the country, one of the authors of the law, Roman Lozynskyi, said on Thursday.
In a post on Facebook, he said 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 renamings.
According to member of parliament (MP) Yaroslav Zhelezniak, 281 MPs voted in favour of the legislative initiative. There are 450 MPs in total. Lozynskyi cited examples of the newly agreed name changes, including Novomoskovsk, Krasnohrad, Druzhba and Pervomaisk.
While some settlements reverted to pre-revolutionary names, Novomoskovsk, which had been named after Moscow since 1794, received an entirely new name - it will now be called Samar.
In the past, a number of cities were renamed in honour of Soviet party leaders. Dnipro was renamed Dnipropetrovsk in 1926 - to honour leading Ukrainian Soviet politician Grigory Petrovsky.
The current campaign to rename these places, which its authors claim is intended to liberate Ukraine from Russia's colonial legacy, is not without controversy. On Tuesday, several MPs blocked the speaker's podium during the debate in an attempt to postpone the vote.
Meanwhile, US President Joe Biden is set to receive Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House next week, the administration in Washington said on Thursday.
Zelensky is planning to meet with Biden next week Thursday, while also holding separate talks with US Vice President, and Democratic presidential candidate, Kamala Harris, it said.
Zelensky recently hinted at the prospect of meeting Biden in Washington again and announced he was looking present the US president his plan for victory in the war against Russia.
Zelensky is first scheduled to address the UN General Assembly in New York and hold talks on the sideline of the event.
Source: Qatar Tribune