Ukraine President Zelenskyy thanks Japan PM for rejecting 'Soviet spelling' of Kyiv

In a key development amid the ever-escalating war between Russia and Ukraine, embattled Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday thanked Japan Prime Minister Fumio Kishida for adopting the 'correct spelling' of Ukraine. It is pertinent to mention here that the Ukrainian President was speaking regarding the online campaign initiated by their foreign ministry of Ukraine, dropping the apparent Soviet spelling of 'Kiev'and adopting the Ukrainian form, which is 'Kyiv.'

In his tweet said, Zelenskyy, "High time to finally discard the outdated Soviet spelling of our cities and adopt the correct Ukrainian form," and further thanked the Japanese PM and also asked other nations to accept the "correct form."

More about '#KyivNotKiev' campaign

It is pertinent to mention here that the campaign was initiated by the Ukrainian foreign affairs ministry in a bid to reject the "Soviet spellings" of Ukrainian cities and ask the world to adopt the Ukrainian spellings instead. The supporters of Ukraine sought the global nations to accept the Ukrainian spellings of cities like Lviv and Kharkiv and reject the "soviet spellings" like 'Lvov' and 'Kharkov'.

The United States Board on Geographic Names officially adopted the name Kyiv as the only correct one back in June 2019, at the request of the United States Department of State, the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States, and Ukrainian organisations in America, resulting in the federal government of the United States solely using 'Kyiv.'

#KyivNotKiev campaign's aim was to persuade international airports all over the world to relocate their operations from Kiev to Kyiv. Most airports had previously refused, claiming that the name Kiev was defined in IATA and ICAO lists. Following a ruling by the United States Board on Geographic Names, IATA changed its name to Kyiv in October 2019. Even before the name 'Kyiv' was adopted by IATA, 63 airports and three airlines around the world (as of January 2020) started using it. Pearson Airport in Toronto, Luton Airport in London, Manchester Airport in Manchester, Frankfurt Airport in Frankfurt, and Josep Tarradellas Barcelona–El Prat Airport.