KIEV, October 30. /TASS/. Ukraine shifted the clock one hour back at 04:00 Moscow time on Sunday while Russia’s new regions stayed in the same time zone with Moscow.
This seasonal practice has been in effect in Ukraine since 1996 while the issue of rejecting it due to its impracticality and alleged negative impact on human health has been discussed at the Rada back in 2020 yet the bill did not pass the second reading.
As Vladimir Rogov, chair of the We Are Together with Russia movement, told TASS earlier, Ukrainian authorities used the practice of shifting the clock as a political instrument imposing it on Russian-speaking regions. According to him, this demonstrated the regime’s anti-Russian policy since average residents suffered from it because the region’s astronomical and natural time corresponded with Moscow’s time zone.
On Friday, acting head of the Zaporozhye Region Yevgeny Balitsky said that the region would not change its clocks to winter time anymore.
In Russia, the switch to winter time was canceled in 2014.
From September 23 to September 27, the Donetsk People’s Republic (DPR) and the Lugansk People’s Republic (LPR) as well as the Kherson Region and the Zaporozhye Region held a referendum where the majority of voters opted to join Russia. On September 30, Russian President Vladimir Putin and the heads of the DPR and the LPR, the Zaporozhye and Kherson Regions signed treaties on their accession to Russia.