Contrary to the will of the Brovary community, three members of the city council did not support the decision to appeal to the Verkhovna Rada with a petition not to rename the city. But there were still more than enough votes - 24 deputies voted in favor. This was reported in a story by UNN correspondents who attended an extraordinary session of the Brovary City Council.
At the initiative of the deputies, the agenda of the session included an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada on the situation with the possible renaming of Brovary to Brovari.
Before the vote, the mayor of Brovary noted that there were conclusions of three respected scientific institutions stating that it was necessary to preserve the current historical name of the city. This position was supported by 24 of the 27 deputies present at the session.
"Given that the initiative to rename the city has been repeatedly considered by the relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada, and that we have repeatedly appealed with certain justifications, the deputies today decided to adopt the relevant decision of the local government and appeal to the Verkhovna Rada to keep the historical name of Brovary.
In my opinion, taking into account independent polls, with today's vote, when 24 deputies supported the appeal to the Verkhovna Rada, we clearly expressed the opinion of the residents that the city should be called Brovary," Ihor Sapozhko said in a commentary to UNN after the session.
The secretary of the Brovary City Council, Tetiana Kovkrak, noted that the deputies actually expressed the consolidated position of the city's residents.
"A petition was created on the website of the Brovary City Council, and votes were collected in support of keeping the name of the city 'Brovary'. Residents of the city expressed their opinion and did not support the renaming," Kovkrak said.
The head of the European Solidarity faction in the Brovary City Council, Serhiy Batiuk, voted against the appeal to the Verkhovna Rada, while his colleague from the faction, Bohdana Drach, abstained. Iryna Veremchuk, a representative of the Voice faction, did not take part in the vote.
Residents of the city, with whom UNN correspondents spoke after the session, supported the decision of their deputies and once again said that their city should be called Brovary.
Context
A group of MPs led by a representative of the Golos faction, Roman Lozynsky, registered a resolution in the Verkhovna Rada to rename Brovary to Brovari.
The renaming was strongly opposed by well-known residents of Brovary: multiple European and world swimming champion Oleh Lisohor, future participant of the Olympic Games in Paris, wrestler Alina Grushina (Akobia), former world professional boxing champion Yuriy Nuzhnenko and many others.
The Association of Ukrainian Cities stated that decisions to change the names of settlements must necessarily be made with the opinion of the community in mind. The relevant committee of the Verkhovna Rada should contact the relevant local government body to obtain the community's position. And then take this position into account when preparing a decision on possible renaming.