decommunization in Ukraine

Destruction of the statue of Lenin in Kyiv during the 1 December 2013 Euromaidan protests Decommunization in Ukraine started during the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 and expanded afterwards. Following the 2014 Revolution of Dignity and beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War, the Ukrainian government approved laws that banned communist symbols, as well as symbols of Nazism as both ideologies were deemed to be totalitarian.

On 15 May 2015, President Petro Poroshenko signed a set of laws that started a six-month period for the removal of Soviet communist monuments (excluding World War II monuments) and renaming of public places that had been named after Soviet communists. At the time, this meant that 22 cities and 44 villages were set to get new names. Until 21 November 2015, municipal governments had the authority to implement this; if they failed to do so, the oblasts had until 21 May 2016 to change the names. If the settlement still kept its old name, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine could give a new name to the settlement. Violation of the law carries a penalty of a potential media ban and prison sentences of five to ten years.