Giving the names of Ukrainian cities to the units of the Russian army does not affect the Army of Ukraine, which has its own military historical traditions. Chief of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces Viktor Muzhenko stated this on Facebook.

"By their decisions, the Russians continue their long tradition of stealing another country's history and glory by marking the territory and claiming other peoples’ lands, to which Russia has nothing relation. It is a clear signal to us and to the world that the aggressor is not going to stay in Donbas and Crimea. It is also aimed at mobilizing pro-Russian forces on the territory of Ukraine, "the Chief of Staff said.

He emphasized that the traditions of the modern Russian army are a mixture of Russian-imperial and Soviet myths, and the Ukrainian Armed Forces realized this in 2014 when each soldier made his choice.

Muzhenko also reported that he had signed a General Staff order that regulates the implementation by the commanders of all levels of the Law of Ukraine "On the Conviction of Communist and National-Socialist (Nazi) Totalitarian Regimes in Ukraine and the Prohibition of Their Symbols".

As it was reported earlier, the President of Russian Federation Vladimir Putin has named military units of Russian army after Ukrainian cities. Such decrees on attaching honorifics were published Monday.

The documents state that the new names were given to different units of the Russian army “with a purpose to preserve glorious military historic traditions, bringing up the military servicemen in the spirit of devotion to the Motherland and loyalty to military service.”

For example, the 6th tank regiment of Russian army will have the name ‘Lviv Guards Tank Regiment’, the 68th tank regiment will be ‘Zhytomyr-Berlin Guards Tank Regiment’ and the 163rd tank regiment will be named ‘Nizhyn Guards Tank Regiment.’