National carrier of cargo and passengers in the Danube basin «Ukrainian Danube Shipping» (UDS), based in the Odessa region, has decided to change the names of over twenty ships.
This was reported by the CEO of UDS, Dmytro Moskalenko.
«It’s strange that over thirty years of Ukraine’s independence, no one in the ‘Danube Shipping’ ever thought of changing the names of the ships from Russian to the state Ukrainian language. It just occurred to us now. We got rid of symbols of the communist regime and Russian cities. During the renaming, we focused on Ukrainian cities that are related to river/maritime transport and are currently occupied,» the statement reads.
Moskalenko notes that the cities of Feodosia, Sevastopol, Genichesk, Mariupol are Ukraine, and Ukrainians who remain in the occupied territories should know that they are remembered. «They should know that we dream of the day when the yellow-blue flag will fly again over all of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Crimea, and Donbas,» says the official.
In particular, the new Ukrainian names on board now carry tugs «Boris Makarov», «Valeriy Kidik», which previously bore the name «Zagorsk». The tug «Zvenyhorod» became «Sevastopol», «Nikifor Sholudenko» was renamed «Odesa», «Gagra» became «Ochakiv», «Irkutsk» to «Kremenchuk», «Khabarovsk» was renamed «Mariupol». Also, «Kuzma Halkin» is now «Mykolaiv», «Chelyabinsk» to «Alyshki», «Orenburg» to «Feodosia», «Astrakhan» to «Linz».
