10/28/2026
Kyiv or Kiev? Chernobyl or Chornobyl? Ukraine or the Ukraine?
On the Day of Ukrainian Writing and Language, we look at why these choices are about history, identity, and sovereignty — not just pronunciation.
When did Kiev become Kyiv?
◾ 1995 Ukraine made Kyiv its official English spelling.
◾ 2006 The U.S. Board on Geographic Names approved Kyiv, while keeping Kiev as an alternative.
◾ 2018 Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs launched the campaign.
◾ 2019 The U.S. Board on Geographic Names retired Kiev. The Associated Press switched to Kyiv in August; the BBC followed in October.
But English says Munich, not München. So why not Kiev?
Munich is an established English exonym that developed over centuries within the English language. Kiev, by contrast, entered English through Russian, not Ukrainian. Ukraine is not asking the world to invent a new English name, but to recognize the existing Ukrainian one — Kyiv.
The same applies to other Ukrainian cities: Kharkiv, not Kharkov; Odesa, not Odessa; Lviv, not Lvov; and Mykolaiv, not Nikolaev
Ukraine is not alone in reclaiming place names.
🇬🇪 Georgians call their country Sakartvelo and accept the Western name Georgia, but not Gruzia, which Russians used to refer to it.
🇪🇪 In Estonia, the city of Dorpat was renamed Yuryev in 1893 as part of Russification; today it is Tartu.
🇰🇿 After Kazakhstan gained independence in 1991, Uralsk became Oral, its Kazakh name.
While some may see renaming as just a change on the map, in Crimea it had devastating consequences. Following the Soviet deportation of Crimean Tatars on May 18-21, 1944, almost 80% of settlements with Crimean Tatar names were given Soviet ones:
◾ Karasubazar → Belogorsk
◾ Islam-Terek → Kirovskoe
◾ Ichki → Sovietskyi
Even a small word like “the” carries historical meaning. English often uses it for regions: the Midwest, the Caucasus, the Crimea. While Ukraine was a Soviet republic, English commonly referred to it as the Ukraine.
The Associated Press dropped the article on December 3, 1991, days after Ukraine voted for independence.
Another familiar example is Chornobyl. The town became known worldwide in 1986, when Ukraine was part of the USSR, and the Russian-derived spelling Chernobyl stuck.
Ukraine has sought recognition of ChOrnobyl since independence. In December 2025, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution using the Ukrainian spelling.
Not every language or institution has made the switch. Kiev remains an established French and Spanish name, transmitted through Russian.
Change requires updating dictionaries, style guides, and institutions. Yet it is happening: French officials and the military increasingly use Kyiv, while Barcelona’s Sagrada Família replaced Kiev with Kíiv in 2026.
Such changes have happened elsewhere. After the Soviet Union collapsed, Kishinev became Chisinau, reflecting the Moldovan name.
India also replaced British colonial spellings: Bombay became Mumbai, Madras became Chennai, and Calcutta became Kolkata.
And this is not just a question of the past.
After occupying Mariupol in 2022, Russian forces replaced Ukrainian signage. In Avdiivka, they restored pre-2014 street names shortly after Ukrainian troops withdrew.
Occupiers have also removed Ukrainian books from libraries. According to Ukraine’s National Resistance Center, around 2.5 million Russian books were shipped into occupied territories in 2023 alone.
