Peter Obukhov has drawn up a list of historical figures who have given their names to streets in the Ukrainian city, a Russian-speaking port
, however, is on a red list of names. Obukhov described Suvorov as a “symbol of Russian imperial militancy” and wants to rename the Odesa district named after him. The deputy proposes purging Russian locations and binning Dmitry Donskoy, a 14th-century Moscow prince.
Trundling through Odesa on an electrical sightseeing car, tour guide Larisa Otkalenko said she probably supported the name changes. “You can’t print what I think about Putin because it’s rude. What I can say is his view of history is completely untrue. It’s bunk,” she said. “Yes, Odesa is a Russian-speaking city. But it’s also multinational and cosmopolitan.”Otkalenko said the territory originally belonged to the Ottoman Turks.
Smirnova said her mother was Ukrainian and her father Russian. Her great-grandfather had perished in a Nazi concentration camp. She said she was proud of Odesa’s Russian roots. At the same time she said she detested Putin’s invasion and his attempt to annex Ukraine and to make it part of a new Russian imperium. As she spoke, the electric car went past Odesa’s ornate French rococo opera theatre, now sandbagged.Ukraine has already twice dismantled Soviet-era state symbols.