The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance condemned the decision of the Chernihiv City Council to rename the Skazka square in the Sherstyanka microdistrict in honor of US President Donald Trump. Institute representative Sergei Butko said that such a decision is “an extremely gross violation of the law and state policy of national memory.”.
In a comment to Suspilny, he recalled that according to the law “On the assignment of names of individuals to legal entities and objects of property rights. "
" This is the norm enshrined in Part 2 of Article 3. It is possible to fully assess whether a person is worthy of such an honor only after completing his life’s journey,” explained Butko.
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According to him, the deputies who initiated the renaming were warned that this was contrary to the law: “As far as I know, the lawyer informed them about the ban. But it happened as it happened. This is very disappointing, because now there are many Heroes of Ukraine (posthumously) who died for the state and deserve to be honored. But there are no names in their honor."
Butko also noted that the decision was made in violation of the procedure. In particular, a meeting of the toponymic commission and public discussions were not held. “The decision was made without discussion right in the session hall. The law is clear and must be followed. I don’t understand why 22 deputies deliberately violated the law,” added a representative of the Institute.
The decision to rename the square was made on October 16 during the 46th extraordinary session of the Chernihiv City Council. The initiator was the chairman of the European Solidarity faction Marina Semenenko.
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In a comment to the Public, Semenenko admitted that she knows about the legal ban on assigning names in honor of living people. However, she stated that there was no violation in this case.
" This is a surname, not a given name. Chernihiv City Council has the right to independently determine names within the city. This is not a question for the Institute of National Memory,” the deputy noted.
According to Semenenko, this decision is a “diplomatic and political step” that should attract the world’s attention to the restoration of Chernigov: “This is a good step so that our city receives international support.”.
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The explanatory note to the decision noted that “residents of Chernigov express hope that Donald Trump will be able to make efforts to end the war and achieve sustainable peace” and that “he can deservedly become a Nobel Peace Prize laureate.”.
On her Facebook page, Marina Semenenko said that the next step after making a decision would be to contact Donald Trump and his family with an invitation to visit Chernigov.
Previously, Ukrzaliznytsia got into a scandal due to renaming. The train connecting Kyiv - Kramatorsk was named " The initiative, which the company explained as the symbolic meaning of resistance, caused outrage as critics accused Ukrzaliznytsia of devaluing and exploiting the route, which is the “road of life” for the military and residents of the front-line region.