MOSCOW, Dec 26 Deputy Mayor of the city of Izyum, Kharkiv region of Ukraine Vladimir Matsokin said that according to the decision of the military administration, 19 streets in the city were renamed as part of the campaign to de-Russify the country, so the street named after the Nazi collaborator Roman Shukhevych appeared.
Roman Shukhevych is one of the former leaders of the OUN-UPA* nationalist organizations banned in Russia, recognized in the materials of the Nuremberg trials as accomplices of the German fascists during the Second World War.
According to the order of the head of the Izyum military administration Valery Marchenko, 19 streets in the city of Izyum were renamed, «we perpetuate and imprint in memory the names of the Izyum residents who died in this war. Prominent Ukrainians Vyacheslav Chernovol, Diana Petrynenko get their worthy places in local toponymy , Valery Lobanovsky, Roman Shukhevych, Levko Lukyanenko. We pay respect to the newest cities. Steve Jobs and Golda Meir — their names will also decorate our city,» Matsokin wrote on social networks.
The attached resolution states that the renaming was carried out as part of the «de-Russification of toponyms of the Izyum city territorial community.»
The dismantling of monuments related to Soviet history, as well as the renaming of streets, began in Ukraine in 2015, when a law on decommunization was adopted. Recently, the Ukrainian authorities have begun to fight not only with Soviet history, but with everything connected with Russia.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said earlier that the Ukrainian authorities have been pursuing a policy of aggressive de-Russification and forced assimilation for many years. He noted that Russia wants to see Ukraine as friendly, without a ban on the Russian language and Russian culture.
* Nationalist organization banned in Russia