Why one should not use place names artificially created by russian propaganda
“in Western Ukraine”, “in Eastern Ukraine”, “Southeastern Ukraine”, “Donbas”… With these and similar artificially created place names, russian propagandists try to expand the territorial perception of the war, as well as to oppose different parts of Ukraine.
It is better to use “in the West of Ukraine”, “in the East of Ukraine”, “in the South of Ukraine” when referring to a geographical part of Ukraine.
At the same time, one should keep in mind Article 133 of the Constitution of Ukraine, which enshrines the administrative-territorial structure of Ukraine and provides clear names for administrative-territorial units. Therefore, instead of “Donbas”, “Donetsk region” and “Luhansk region” should be used.
For more explanations of the terminology, see the Glossary prepared by the Center for Countering Disinformation in cooperation with the NSDC Office.
