Kyiv, Odesa and Donbas: Sweden officially changes the spelling of Ukrainian cities

Sweden officially changes the spelling of Ukrainian geographical names in Swedish-language communications. From now on, Swedish government agencies and the diplomatic service will use Kyjiv/Kyiv instead of Kiev, Odesa instead of Odessa, and Donbas instead of Donbass, reports UNN citing the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

"Names are not just words. They carry history, identity, and the right of a people to self-determination," said Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Maria Malmer Stenergard.

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Andrii Sybiha thanked Sweden for this important step.

"It is entirely logical that Ukrainian cities should bear their Ukrainian names, not derivatives from the Russian language imposed by centuries of imperial rule," he emphasized.

The head of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine thanked the Swedish government and the Embassy of Sweden in Ukraine for this decision.

Let us add

KyivNotKiev (part of the broader CorrectUA campaign) is an online de-Russification campaign launched by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine together with the Center for Strategic Communications "StratCom Ukraine" on October 2, 2018, with the aim of persuading English-language media and other organizations to start using the transliteration "Kyiv" (based on the Ukrainian name of the city) for the name of the city of Kyiv in English, instead of "Kiev" (based on the Russian name of the city). The motivation for the campaign is that the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, like a significant number of Ukrainian citizens, considers the transliteration "Kiev" in English to be a "Soviet colonial relic" and seeks to "build a Ukrainian identity by rejecting everything that ties Ukraine to the Soviet and Russian imperial past."