Composer or Hero of Ukraine: A Proposal to Rename a Street in Odesa

The Executive Committee of the Odesa City Council has launched a public consultation process in the form of an online survey regarding the renaming of places in the city of Odesa. 

This was reported by the press service of the Odesa City Hall.

The online discussion will take place from July 10 to September 10, 2026, on the Odessa City Council’s web portal “Socially Active Citizen” via a special online service called “Public Consultations.” The following changes are proposed: renaming Lyadov Street after Pavlo Malofeyenko. The reason is thatAnatoly Lyadov was a Russian composer, conductor, and educator, as well as a professor at the St. Petersburg Conservatory. In contrast, Pavlo Malofeyenko was a senior sailor in the Naval Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and a participant in the Russian-Ukrainian war who distinguished himself during the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Hero of Ukraine (posthumously). On January 30, 2023, while carrying out a combat mission, he came under heavy artillery fire in the village of Vodyane, Donetsk Oblast, and sustained fatal injuries. 

It was also proposed to rename Pryvokzalnyi Lane to Heroes-Rescuers Lane. Residents who are registered in accordance with established procedures as living within the city of Odesa, or whose actual place of residence is confirmed by a certificate of registration as an internally displaced person, and who are at least eighteen years of age, are eligible to participate in public consultations.

In June, activists from the civil society organization “Decolonization.Ukraine” once again updated their map listing the streets they believe should be renamed, reducing the number of such streets in the Odesa region. From 139 as of December 5, 2025, the number of such place names decreased to 135 as of June 12, 2026. Odesa Oblast ranks fifth in Ukraine by this metric, trailing Zaporizhzhia, where 987 streets require decolonization, Kharkiv Oblast (264), Kyiv Oblast (199), and Vinnytsia Oblast (188). At the same time, according to activists, the decrease occurred in all regions that were previously leading in this regard. 

Кирило Бойко