DISINFO: The USA gives the Ukrainian capital a "new name"
SUMMARY
The USA gives the Ukrainian capital a “new name”. The United States Board on Geographic Names has decided to make orthographic changes to the word ‘Kiev’. The American authorities unanimously decided to modify the name of the Ukrainian capital. Now, among other things, ‘Kyiv’ is to be written at airports and international organisations instead of ‘Kiev’.
RESPONSE
Recurring pro-Kremlin disinformation narratives about the US relations with Ukraine and Ukrainian statehood. The USA did not give Ukrainian capital a "new name". The United States Board on Geographic Names considered the appeal of Ambassador of Ukraine to the United States Valeriy Chaly and unanimously decided to remove ‘Kiev’ as a conventional name and to recognise only one official spelling – ‘Kyiv’, as the correct name for the capital of Ukraine. The 'Kiev' spelling is transliterated from the Russian language, while ‘Kyiv’ is transliterated from Ukrainian. In October 2018, Foreign Ministry of Ukraine has launched a social media campaign to try to persuade international media, organisations and companies to use ‘Kyiv’ for Ukraine’s capital name instead of the traditional English spelling ‘Kiev’. The EU has been using the Ukrainian transliteration Kyiv since 18.04.2012. The Ukrainian government adopted 'Kyiv' as its standard Latinisation in 1995, making ‘Kyiv’ mandatory for use in the legislative and official acts.