Yulia Sydorenko came to part without regret from all her works in the Russian language, some of which were nevertheless dear to her.

"I got them for my 20th birthday, there are autographs from my friends. I took a picture of them," she told AFP.

The 33-year-old shows a collection of fairy tales from her childhood: "I am convinced that my children will never read Russian tales. Since February 24, Russian books no longer have a place in my house" .

The money raised by recycling the books will go to the Ukrainian army to buy a car.

An idea inspired by bookstore customers, who were wondering where to put this part of their libraries that had become awkward.

"In two months, we collected 25 tons of books, the recycling of which brought us 100,000 hryvnias (2,700 euros)," bookseller Iryna Sazonova told AFP.

Since the annexation of Crimea and the Donbass war in 2014, Ukraine has been dismantling Soviet-era monuments and changing place names.

But Russian remained omnipresent, especially in kyiv.

Since February 24, this presence of Russian in the private and public space has been called into question.

Haro on the Bulgakov Museum

This is the case with the Mikhail Bulgakov museum, in the center of kyiv, where the Russian writer lived for 13 years.

The Writers' Union of Ukraine flatly offered to close it.

Bulgakov is accused by Ukrainians of being imperialist and Ukrainian-phobic, notably in his novel "The White Guard" which is at the heart of the museum's exhibition.

"The colors of war are black and white," relativizes the director of the establishment, Lioudmyla Goubianouri.

"In art, nuances are essential. They are numerous in Bulgakov, but people tend to ignore them", she regrets.

Nevertheless, Mrs. Goubianouri believes that the museum will have to be transformed to meet the challenges of the time.

Her team "is working on the new design which will be established in dialogue with the public", she assures.

Ukrainians bring books in Russian to a bookstore in central kyiv on September 18, 2022 Sergei SUPINSKY AFP / Archives

At Shevchenko University, the management also unbolted last August the plaque commemorating Mikhail Bulgakov, who had studied there.

Oleksandr Bondarenko, the head of a department where Russian is taught in particular, believes that the plate could offend the sensitivity of passers-by who have lost their loved ones in the war.

In front of the museum, the opinions of passers-by are divided.

For Anton Glazkov, a 27-year-old teacher, the closure would be bad news "since war and works of art are not always linked".

On the other hand, Dmytro Tcheliouk, 45, who runs a clothing store located just opposite, judges that "the hour has come for us to de-Russify ourselves and to remove the Russian empire from our streets".

The unbolted Moscow street

Precisely, Oleg Slabospitsky, 33, member of Ukrainian youth associations, takes advantage of his lunch break to take out a stepladder and put on a signal vest.

This noon, with another activist, they are going to unbolt three plates from the rue de Moscow.

With friends, Oleg organizes himself to do it every week, since the pro-European revolution of Maidan in 2014. "It is the inhabitants themselves who should be at the origin of such initiatives", he pleads .

And there is no shortage of work.

kyiv City Hall recently voted to rename 142 streets whose names refer to Russia.

And 345 others are awaiting the same fate.

A man removes a street sign in kyiv bearing the name "Moscow", September 21, 2022 Sergei SUPINSKY AFP / Archives

The former Moscow street now honors the Ostrozky Princes, a dynasty of 16th century Ukrainian politicians.

Education has also done its share of cleaning.

Russian language courses, most often optional, have been removed from the school curriculum, as has the study of most works by Russian writers.

At Shevchenko University, in the department headed by Mr. Bondarenko, courses on information warfare are now at the heart of the curriculum.

"In a hybrid war like this, you have to learn the language of the enemy to know him well. Sworn translators will be in great demand at war crimes trials," explains the official.

© 2022 AFP