Kyiv City Council Votes to Rename Mazepa into Lavrska Street
KYIV – On July 8 the Kyiv City Council passed a resolution to rename a part of Ivan Mazepa Street beginning from the Square of Glory up to the Great Patriotic War Square into Lavrska Street.
As reports UNIAN, of the 113 deputies present, 64 voted for the renaming.
The draft resolution was introduced to the agenda by deputy Vitaly Zhuravskyi. He reminded of the historical name of the street which was suggested to be renamed, and said in the maps of 1905 this street was called the Road to Laura.
On his part, the head of the Kyiv Council’s Committee on Matters of Culture, O. Bryhynets noted that the part of the street, which remains under the name of Ivan Mazepa, is very small and includes only ten houses. “This is a disgrace,” stated Brahynets.
In addition, he said that by its decision to rename the street the Kyiv Council can provoke an ideological war in the capital. On O. Bryhynets conviction, public referendum is to be held on this issue.
In the beginning of June, the Kyiv City State Administration received a letter from one of the Orthodox Churches with a request to rename the street into Lavrska (monastery). The website of the Ukrainian People’s Party on the same day published information that the then deputy head of the Kyiv City State Administration, Zhuravskyi, reported at the session of the Kyiv Council on questions of tourism that Patriarch Kirill of Moscow addressed the Kyiv officials regarding the renaming of Ivan Mazepa’s street. The Ukrainian People’s Party then issued a statement against renaming Mazepa Street “to please Moscow.”
On 7 July, Kyiv Council’s Committee on Matters of Culture and Tourism for the second time decided not to support the draft resolution to rename Mazepa’s Street.
Today, about 150 persons picketed at the building of the Kyiv City State Administration and Kyiv City Council with the demand not to rename the street. An address in this regard was signed by representatives of the academic and cultural sphere and members of 23 public organizations.
The picketers represented a newly established movement of volunteers Space of Freedom chanted “Mazepa forever, Mazepa is our hero, Ukraine above all.” The picketers included representatives of the Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists, All-Ukrainian Association Svoboda, and For Ukraine Party.
