Nowhere Man: Ukrainians Swap Out Lenin For Lennon
Imagine all the people, living for today. And ditching their Soviet past.
The 6,000 residents of Kalyny, in western Ukraine, hope to do just that. They have renamed Vladimir Lenin Street after the late Beatle John Lennon.
Hennadiy Moskal, head of the Zakarpattia state administration, signed a decree renaming a total of 10 streets in the oblast, citing the so-called decommunization laws that have been enacted amid an effort to further spurn an era and imagery that Kyiv fears Moscow is using to promote self-serving myths while seizing territory and orchestrating unrest in neighboring Ukraine.
Read more by RFE/RL's Anna Shamanska here.
Here's a Savchenko update from our news desk:
Russian Prosecutor Calls For 23-Year Sentence Against Savchenko
Russia's prosecutor has called for a 23-year prison term for Ukrainian pilot Nadia Savchenko, who has been accused by Russian authorities of involvement in the deaths of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine.
The call came as closing arguments in the trial began on March 2. A verdict is expected soon after closing arguments are completed.
Savchenko was fighting in a volunteer battalion against Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine when she was captured in June 2014.
She has accused the separatists of kidnapping her and taking her into Russia where she was jailed and charged.
Kyiv says the charges against her are trumped up and that she should be treated as a prisoner of war.
Savchenko has been refusing food while on trial in Russia and has threatened to go on full hunger strike – including a refusal to drink -- unless she is returned to Ukraine within 10 days of the verdict.