In Kiev, part of Lavra Street was returned to the name in honor of Ivan Mazepa

The Kiev city council has decided to rename a part of Lavrska Street in Pecherskyy district in honor of Hetman Ivan Mazepa. This decision, the city council said, “restores the historical name, which was changed in 2010 amid political pressure”.

As Ukrinform reports with reference to the Kiev city state administration, 72 deputies voted in favor of the relevant decision at the plenary session. It is noted that Kiev citizens have been in favor of this renaming since 2022, having supported the corresponding electronic petition, after which the initiative was publicly discussed.

The idea of returning the street to the name of the hetman was also approved by the National Reserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” and the National Museum of Holodomor-genocide.

The initiator of the renaming, Kyiv Council deputy Olesya Pinzenik, emphasized the significance of this step. “Ivan Mazepa is one of the most prominent statesmen in the history of Ukraine and a patron of the arts, who made a huge contribution to the development of Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. His name should be immortalized on the street where the temples restored at his expense stand,” she said. The MP added that the change of name in 2010 at the request of the Moscow Patriarchate was “humiliation of Ukrainian history and direct influence of the enemy on our city government”.

We will remind, earlier we reported that in the National Reserve “Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra” on December 1, a grand opening of the bust of hetman Ivan Mazepa took place. This event was timed to coincide with the anniversary of the All-Ukrainian referendum on independence in 1991, and, according to the organizers, “was an important step in restoring historical justice and recognition of Mazepa’s contribution as an outstanding patron of the arts, at whose expense a number of structures were built on the territory of the sanctuary”.