Not Brest and Belgorod — how the Ministry of Foreign Affairs proposes to Ukrainianize city names.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (MFA) plans to restore the use of Ukrainian names for foreign toponyms. Diplomats are working on this initiative, as noted by MFA head Andriy Sybiha on his Facebook page.

Sybiha shared an example when he received a diplomatic note where one of the states used the spelling 'Kiev' instead of the correct 'Kyiv'. This caused a negative reaction from the Ukrainian minister, who pointed out the need to respect Ukrainian city names to ensure adequate interaction.

The minister noted that Ukraine has already succeeded in implementing the official transliteration of its toponyms, such as Kyiv, Odesa, Lviv, Kharkiv, Chernihiv, Chornobyl, thanks to support from prominent global media, governments, and international organizations.

Now the MFA proposes to switch to using Ukrainian names for foreign geographical objects with already established correspondences: Berestя instead of Brest, Belgorod instead of Bєlgorod, Dobrоchin instead of Debrecen, and others.

According to Sybiha, this issue is about respect for the Ukrainian state and its self-respect. Other countries will respect Ukraine only if Ukrainians respect themselves.

It was previously reported about the renaming of some streets in the city of Odesa as part of decommunization, as well as the renaming of the city of Yuzhne.