Kyiv's District Administrative Court has declared unlawful and overturned the decision of the Kyiv City Council to rename Moskovsky (Moscow) Avenue into Stepan Bandera Avenue, as part of the decommunization drive.
That's according to a court ruling of January 28, published in the Unified State Register of Court Decisions.
The court's ruling was handed down on the lawsuit lodged by a local NGO which contested the terms of the Council decision and vote count legality.
Read alsoZelensky on Bandera: Ukrainians should also praise modern day heroes"The court also fined the Kyiv City Council to the tune of UAH 9,205 (US$331) for failure to provide data for forensic examination," Dolinsky said.
Also, the court decided to cancel the renaming of Suvorov Street (named after Alexander Suvorov – Russian general in service of the Russian Empire) into Mykhailo Omelianovych-Pavlenko Street (after the Supreme Commander of the Ukrainian Galician Army (UHA) and of the Army of the Ukrainian People's Republic), he added.
The ruling will enter into force after the appeal deadline expires, that is, in 30 days.
Municipal authorities say they are already working to prepare the relevant appeal and file it with the court.
Decommunization in Ukraine
On April 9, 2015, the Ukrainian parliament passed legislation on decommunization, as per Wikipedia.
It banned the promotion of symbols of "Communist and National Socialist totalitarian regimes".One of the main provisions of the bill was the recognition of the Soviet Union was "criminal" and one that it "pursued a state terror policy".
The legislation prohibits the use of Communist symbols and propaganda and also bans all symbols and propaganda of national-socialism and its values and any activities of Nazi or fascist groups in Ukraine.
The ban applies to monuments, place and street names, while not applying to World War 2 monuments and when symbols are located in a cemetery.
Expressing pro-communist views was never made illegal.
The ban on communist symbols did result in the removal of hundreds of statues, the replacement of millions of street signs and the renaming of populated places including some of Ukraine's biggest cities like Dnipro.
