Journalist calls for revision of historical dates in Odesa's charter

Odesa journalist Yuriy Dyachenko, who is currently serving in the Ukrainian armed forces, has updated proposals to change the date of the city's "foundation day" from September 2 to May 19 in the draft city charter.

He wrote about this on his Facebook page.

He also believes that the document should exclude the holiday scheduled for September 3 as the "Day of the Twin City and Partner City" and exclude the holiday of the city's liberation, traditionally scheduled for April 10.

"There was no "liberation", but a change of occupant, so April 10 cannot be a holiday, to add real Ukrainian history to the charter of the city of Odesa. The myth of the city's founding has no scientific basis and does not stand up to the criticism of scientists. Undoubtedly, part of its history, Odesa was connected with the Russian Empire and Soviet imperialism, but its history, as well as the history of Ukraine, compared to Russian imperialism, is much older, and during the period of Russian imperialism, it was closely connected with the history of Ukraine and Ukrainianness, including Odesa itself," Yuriy Dyachenko emphasized.

In July, the Odesa municipality put up for discussion a new version of the Odesa city charter, which, according to the mayor's office, was revised in accordance with the wishes of the citizens. From July 9 to September 9, the working group will collect and summarize all proposals and comments on the draft new version of the Statute of the territorial community of Odesa that will be received within the specified period.

The Statute of the Territorial Community of Odesa is the main local legal act of the city community. In recent years, changes have taken place in all areas of Odesa's life that need to be reflected in the Charter.

On behalf of Odesa Mayor Hennadii Trukhanov, Odesa worked to prepare a new version of the Statute of the Territorial Community of Odesa (hereinafter - the draft Statute).

In order to receive suggestions and comments from the public, the draft Charter was published on the official website of the city council omr.gov.ua. From March 7 to April 7, 2023, proposals or comments from the public were collected, which are currently being processed by the working group.

The start of the development of a new city charter was announced in September 2022. At that time, the working group on the development of the new Statute of Odesa was given a month to draft a new document, which was later planned to be submitted for public discussion.

The current Charter has not been changed for more than 10 years, so now it needs to be revised and amended, primarily due to changes in the legislation of Ukraine.