De-Sovietization is gaining momentum: in Ukraine, the status of "urban settlements" has been abolished and "settlements" have been introduced

According to the document, from now on Ukraine will only have cities, towns and villages. Thus, at the same time, only cities will remain urban settlements, and there will be more rural settlements due to the transition of all urban settlements to the category of "simple" villages. The relevant law was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on July 28.

The Verkhovna Rada adopted a general law on the regulation of certain issues of the administrative and territorial structure of Ukraine in the second reading. The authors of the project called it deradyanization. Therefore, there will be no more urban-type settlements in Ukraine.

“This is unacceptable, both due to the gradual unification (harmonization) of our legislation with the law of the European Union, and the unequivocal course of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on the de-Sovietization of our legal system, which has become particularly important against the backdrop of full armed aggression against Ukraine by the aggressor state which is positioned as the prototype of the Soviet Union and the bearer of the relevant traditions,” reads the text of the act.

Vitaliy Bezgin, one of the authors of the relevant draft law, a people's deputy from the "Servants of the People", a member of the Supreme Council of the Commission on the Organization of State Power, Local Self-Government, Regional Development and Urban Planning, noted that this law proposes to establish clear procedures for classifying settlements into the category of cities and sat down

262 deputies supported the project in the vote. The law will enter into force three months after its official publication.

What does this mean, and what will change on the map of Ukraine?

• the definition of "urban-type settlement" is repealed;
• a town is a settlement with a compact multi-storey building and a population of at least 10,000. people;
• a settlement is a settlement with manor buildings and a population of over 5,000 people;
• settlements with manor buildings and less than 5,000 inhabitants shall be considered as villages;
• upon entry into force of the Act, "cities of regional and poviat importance" will simply be towns, and former urban-type settlements will become "villages".

There will be no automatic downgrading of cities, And that's not all. The Act introduces a new concept - "settlement". This is the name of a compact place of residence of people outside the settlement, which does not have a permanent population.

“Currently, many communes have de facto housing estates like this. These are mostly former summer cottage cooperatives, as well as makeshift mobile towns where displaced people live forcibly. Due to the war, there will be more such settlements, and they must be included in the life of the community”, explained Vitaly Bezgin.

Before the full-scale war, there were 460 cities, 885 urban settlements and over 28,000 rural settlements in Ukraine. However, with the arrival of the invaders, their numbers dwindled. Today, some settlements are completely destroyed.

The term "urban-type village" appeared in the USSR in 1922, and in the Ukrainian SSR it began to be used three years later instead of the concept of "city". This term was used by all republics of the USSR and the countries of the social camp. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the concept of urban centers was abolished in Poland, Bulgaria, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Armenia and Moldova.

The process of decommunization in Ukraine has been going on since 2015. According to the act, all Soviet symbols are banned, and the names of neighborhoods and streets named after communist figures must be changed. A wave of dismantling of Lenin's monuments also swept through the country.