A small town located near the front line with pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine will now be called New York, regaining its former name under a resolution voted on Thursday by the Ukrainian parliament.
“Congratulations to the people of New York, Donetsk region,” the US Embassy in Ukraine responded on Twitter.
“One more reason to celebrate our close ties.
We are big fans of your new / old name!
She added.
More than 300 Ukrainian deputies have spoken out to "give back its historical name" to this city of a dozen thousand souls located about thirty kilometers from Donetsk, one of the strongholds of the pro-Russian separatists, thus giving the green light to a measure proposed by several of its inhabitants.
This town, founded in the 18th century - it was then a village - had adopted the name New York a century later for a reason that remains unknown.
According to one of the hypotheses cited by some media, it received it from German settlers who had settled there.
"Politico-ideological reasons"
In 1951, at a time when Ukraine was part of the USSR and in the midst of the Cold War with the United States, it was decided that it would then be called Novgorodské.
This decision was taken "for politico-ideological reasons" put forward by the Communist Party, according to an explanatory note accompanying the parliamentary resolution.
Today, the United States is a key supporter of Ukraine in the face of Russia, which annexed Ukraine's Crimean peninsula in 2014 and is seen as the military and financial godfather of the separatists at war with Kiev forces in ballast.
This conflict has killed more than 13,000 people in seven years.
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