Germany’s authorities have decided to move away from the Russian spelling of Ukraine’s capital of Kiev to the Ukrainian one, the nation’s foreign ministry said on Saturday. The city that was previously spelled as ‘Kiew’ in written German would now have to be spelled as ‘Kyjiw’, the ministry said in a series of statements on X (formerly, Twitter).
Berlin has introduced the relevant changes to the “Country Register for the Official Use” – a document providing the guidelines for the government document workflow. The foreign ministry also said that it was “gradually” introducing the changes as well.
The statement did not elaborate on the reasons for the change and only said that such a spelling had been a “common practice” for “many” entities, without naming any such entity in particular.
The Japanese defense ministry took a similar decision in March 2022, about a month into the conflict between Moscow and Kiev. The move was taken following a review of “major media” coverage, it said at that time.