Ukrainians’ Absurd Request

The following seems like a Babylon Bee story, but it is true. Professor Cristian Sandache wrote recently about the absurd request made by the Ukrainian Embassy and the Union of the Ukrainians in Romania to the mayor of Bucharest, the capital of Romania, to join other European capitals’ tide against the Russians and to change their history to appear woke appeasers to Ukrainians.

They asked that part of the Pavel D. Kiseleff highway be renamed the Ukrainian Highway. The Russian Federation Embassy is located on the said Kiseleff Highway. Such a renaming would show “solidarity with the Ukrainian people subjected to the Putinist Russia aggression.” Vladimir Putin has always considered Ukraine Russian.

Professor Sandache reminded the Ukrainians that Kiseleff (Count Pavel D. Kiselyov) was an important historical figure for Romanians and a positive reformer. He was the governor of the Principalities of Moldova and Tara Romaneasca in the 1829-1834 period, and a diplomat and businessman during the occupation by the Russian Empire.

Kiselyov was essential in drafting what amounted to the first constitution of the Romanian principalities of that period; they were called Regulamentele Organice (1831 and 1832). When he returned to the Russian Empire, Kiselyov was remembered with fondness by the landowners of the two principalities. When Kiselyov was Russian Ambassador to France during 1856-1862, he promoted the unification of the two principalities into one Romanian territory and he remained a friend of the Romanian cause and its people until the end of his life.

It is interesting to note that even in the WWII period when Romania was at war with USSR, nobody brought up the request to change the name of the highway in question.

The Ukrainian Embassy’s absurd request is not a diplomatic gaffe but a purposeful disregard of Romanian history. And the mayor of Bucharest and the woke Romanian contingent may be just so EU-compliant or corrupt enough to make the change.