KIEV, July 5. /TASS/. Ukraine’s drive to get rid of Soviet symbols has spread to the national army’s insignia as servicemen will soon have to replace five-pointed stars on their shoulder straps with ribbed squares, according to a document approved by the Ukrainian president.
The document titled: "Items of the Uniform and Insignia of the Ukrainian Armed Forces" was published by Ukrainian presidential adviser Yuri Biryukov on Tuesday.
"This meticulous work was conducted for over a year: the entire bunch of due attention from ill-wishers - intrigues, scandals, gossips and complaints - and the laborious effort of a group of enthusiasts. Today this effort has been completed," the adviser wrote on his Facebook page, commenting on the photos of the approved document with the designs of new shoulder boards.
According to the illustrations, a captain of the Ukrainian Armed Forces, for example, will have four squares on his shoulder straps placed along one line, with their angles turned to each other.
Ukraine adopted a package of laws on de-communization in May 2015 to condemn the Communist regime and outlaw Soviet symbols.
The de-communization package requires renaming all the facilities bearing the names of Soviet figures from the district level and higher and mentioning communism, the Soviet power or its institutes - the Communist Party with the Komsomol and the Pioneer Organization as its youth and children’s branches. The greatest controversy lately has been caused by a decision of Ukrainian parliament deputies to rename the city of Dnepropetrovsk into Dnepr and the city of Dneprodzerzhinsk into Kamenskoye.