New Delhi: As chaos and devastation have intensified in Ukraine after Russia’s invasion, different disturbing stories are flooding in. As civilians and military forces are trying their best to protect their motherland with grit and determination, every story related to the war is making headlines now and then.
Meanwhile, there seems to be little confusion arising about the capital of Ukraine, Kyiv. One may have encountered two different sets of spellings of the capital city – Kyiv (KEEV) and Kiev (Key-EV).
Notably, the difference in spelling and pronunciation is not due to ignorance but they highlight a deep contextual and historical meaning for the ongoing Russian conflict.
Is it Kyiv or Kiev?
Ukrainians call their capital city Kyiv (kee-yiv) while Russians call it Kiev (kee-yev), the transliteration from the Russian Cyrillic.
Reportedly, Kyiv is named after one of its legendary founders, Kyi.
According to Old East Slavic folklore, three brothers namely Kyi, Shchek, and Khoryv founded the medieval city of Kyiv. Besides, before Ukraine gained its independence in 1991, the city remained a part of the Soviet Union.
During the time of Soviet rule, the capital city was globally referred to as Kiev. Even in the first years of this century, the city was regarded by the name Kiev. However, it is now associated with the Russianification of Ukraine. In recent times, most publications, government, airports, and geographical dictionaries have shifted the spilling to the Ukrainian variant.
When did Kiev become Kyiv?
After Ukraine got its independence from the USSR in 1991, many regulatory guidelines were introduced for transliterating the name of the places from Cyrillic to Latin alphabets. Soon, legislative and official acts and documents of Ukrainian officials started using the name Kiev.
However, the Western media continued to use the same old Soviet Union spelling of the capital city.
Furthermore, in 2018, the #CorrectUA campaign was launched by the Foreign Ministry to promote the official spellings of Ukrainian places in order to move on from the Russian derivative of the name.