Is it true that a street in Kyiv was renamed in honor of Victoria Nuland?

In March 2024, news appeared that the name of the American diplomat would be immortalized on the map of the Ukrainian capital. We have checked whether these reports are true.

According to publications in the media and social networks, the mayor of Kyiv Vitaliy Klitschko signed a decree naming a street in the Darnitsky district, previously named after Tchaikovsky, after Victoria Nuland, the US Deputy Secretary of State, whose imminent resignation it became known March 5th. In the winter of 2013, Nuland, then assistant secretary of state for European and Eurasian affairs, appeared at Euromaidan, talked to the protesters, treated them to sandwiches and cookies, which gave rise to the meme “State Department cookies" Messages about the renaming were accompanied by a photograph of the corresponding decree.

The former Prime Minister of Ukraine dedicated this news to publications on his social networks. Mykola Azarov and writer Zakhar Prilepin, the TV channel “told about her”360°", "Radio Sputnik", "Arguments and facts", "Zavtra.ru", "Ukraine.ru", "New time", as well as Telegram channels "Dmitry Nicotin"(300,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), Ne.Sugar (259,000), Alien Sales (256,000), "Observer" (170,000), "Uncle Slava"(170,000), etc.

As part of a campaign to de-Russify toponyms, Ukrainian authorities in the last two years have often named streets in honor of foreign politicians, including modern Western ones. So, during this time in the country appeared several streets at once of Boris Johnson, the former British prime minister, who was one of the first among European leaders to decide to provide full-scale military assistance to Kyiv. Decisions on renaming are made, including within the framework of the one adopted in 2023 law “On the condemnation and prohibition of the propaganda of Russian imperial policy in Ukraine and the decolonization of toponymy,” according to which Russian and Soviet geographical names should disappear in the country in a short time, in in particular “markers of the superiority of Russian culture.” The surname of the composer Pyotr Tchaikovsky, according to the conclusion of the expert commission of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance, is included in this category, therefore, in the near future, the National Music Academy of Ukraine located in Kyiv, apparently, will rename.

The US State Department's announcement of Nuland's imminent resignation, which appeared on March 5, caused widespread response in the Ukrainian mass media - the diplomat’s activities for many years were directly related to Ukraine, and completely recently she came to Kyiv. However, the news about the renaming of the street in honor of Nuland in the center of the Ukrainian capital, oddly enough, did not appear in the local media.

Let's take a closer look at the document, a photograph of which is being distributed in the media. Indeed, all decisions taken by the Kyiv City Council these days include to the II session of the IX convocation.

However, the latter at the time of writing the analysis was accepted February 29, more recent decisions are not available on the official website of the Kyiv City Council. Also, there are no similar messages in the “Renaming streets» on the official portal of Kyiv.

The decision number on the document that became the basis for viral publications is also noteworthy: 156/7281. Decisions of the Kyiv City Council are numbered in chronological order, and both parts of the number in the latest documents exceed 7800: for example, 7806/7847. IN database There is no decision number 156/7281 on the website of this authority, but it could not appear in 2024 in any case.

Both the Kyiv City Council and the media have previously repeatedly published other solutions on renaming streets in the Ukrainian capital. These documents can easily be used as a template to create a fake.

“Verified” contacted the Kyiv City Council for a comment, but did not receive a response at the time of publication of the analysis.

According to TGStat, the pro-Russian channel was the first to spread the news on Telegram “Shaman Rahu"(3500 views), where the corresponding entry appeared on March 6 at 14:40 Moscow time. This channel has repeatedly appeared in “Verified” analyzes as the primary source of incorrect information - for example, in November 2023 there posted news on a similar topic that in Kyiv, on the site of the monument to Pushkin, they are going to erect a monument to US President Joe Biden. The first major source of dissemination of the message was the publication of the channel Nina Vatt (38,000 views, 262 shares), released two minutes later. This channel has also been repeatedly replicated fakes.

Cover photo: screenshot from social networks / Wikimedia Commons

Fake

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