Commissioner for the Protection of the State Language Taras Kremin warned against renaming streets named after Ukrainian defenders.
The language ombudsman said this in an interview with Apostrophe.
He noted that local authorities are using the law on local self-government and thus trying to play along with local communities, especially in preparation for possible upcoming local elections.
"I believe that this is pure political provocation and speculation that has nothing to do with meeting the needs of communities in the territories of individual regions. For example, I cannot imagine that, say, tomorrow someone will start renaming streets named after the defenders of Ukraine who laid down their lives in the Russian-Ukrainian war, prominent Ukrainian architects, writers, scientists and cultural figures of different periods and eras. After all, the same goes for historical names that have been imprinted and are the embodiment of the high wise thought of the builders of individual communities and territories," he explained.
He believes that such dangers should definitely be analyzed and a solution can be found at the level of regional military administrations, especially in conditions of martial law.
In particular, in the history of the Kharkiv region, I noticed signs of excess of authority on the part of individual local government bodies, which, contrary to the order of the head of the Kharkiv Oblast Autonomous Region, recreated an example of "reverse decolonization."
"I think this can be implemented. At the same time, I recommend that all communities, as well as every citizen, learn more about the new names. Obviously, prepare appropriate informational explanatory actions and campaigns that could tell much more to the modern residents of Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Odessa, Kyiv, Dnipro, Zaporizhia, where there were perhaps the most renamings, why this street is named after a particular person, event, what is its contribution to the development of a particular community, the protection of territorial integrity, the development of Ukrainian culture, science, spirituality, etc., in order to prevent potentially dangerous reverse decolonization processes," Kremin added.
Read more in the material "Apostrophe": "There are no language inspectors. This is a fiction of Russian propaganda." Interview with Taras Kremen