As part of the nationwide decolonization campaign in Ukraine, a new wave of street renaming has begun, which has caused serious disputes between local authorities and regional administrations.
A number of city mayors were indignant that local authorities were being asked to rename even streets named after prominent compatriots on the grounds that they lived in Soviet or tsarist times.
The most resonant cases were in Odesa, Dnipro and Kryvyi Rih. Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov said that Odesa is being "zeroed" by renaming under one comb.
"Based on the logic of the "decolonizers", we must abandon everything that made Odessa a world brand," the mayor wrote on his Telegram channel, promising to fight for the cancellation of the renaming.
Mayor of Dnipro Borys Filatov and Chairman of the Defense Council of Kryvyi Rih Oleksandr Vilkul are also going to oppose the renaming.
It should be noted that the wave of renaming of toponyms and demolition of monuments began two years ago after the full-scale invasion. And, from time to time, it caused discontent on the ground (such as, for example, the demolition of the monument to the Russian empress Catherine in Odessa). However, the local authorities previously considered it better not to resist the process.
But now the situation has changed due to two factors.
The first is the general accumulated irritation in the South-Eastern regions with the policy of Ukrainization and "decolonization", which is accompanied by "bends". This was visible even earlier by the reaction of many Russian-speaking citizens to the question "why not state". And now it has turned into a resistance to the renaming, regarding which many have the feeling that "the stick has been bent".
The second is growing dissatisfaction in society with the course of affairs in the country. Starting from the long war (against the repeated promises of the authorities of "quick victory"), increased mobilization, corruption, and ending with humanitarian policy.
According to experts, the local government feels the change of mood particularly well, and therefore begins to react to them.
