Kyiv: In a decisive step reflecting Ukraine’s continued effort to assert its sovereignty and cultural identity, the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) has announced plans to rename its smallest monetary unit from the Russian-derived term “kopeck” (kopiyka in Ukrainian) to the historically rooted Ukrainian word “shah” (шах). This move is seen as part of Kyiv’s broader campaign to de-Russify its institutions and symbols in the wake of ongoing hostilities with Russia.

Andriy Pyshnyi, governor of the NBU, emphasized that the renaming represents more than semantics. “We should finally complete our monetary reform and remove any affinity, any connection with Moscow. Because we have our own term, and the time has come to finally take it back,” he told Reuters. Under the plan, the one kopiyka coin w

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