WASHINGTON – The Ukrainian capital of Kiev is now Kyiv, as far as the U.S. government is concerned.
And the State Department says the spelling change has nothing to do with American hopes of wooing the one-time Soviet republic more into the Western orbit.
About half of Ukraine’s 47 million people are Russian speakers, and Kiev is the Russian spelling.
Ukraine’s Western-leaning President Viktor Yushchenko, elected on the wave of the 2004 Orange Revolution’s mass protests against election fraud, has sought to take his nation out of Russia’s influence and join NATO and the European Union.
The department announced the change in a memorandum Oct. 3, instructing officials to use the Kyiv spelling in all communications regarding Ukraine.
The Associated Press continues to spell the name of the capital Kiev.
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