French Armed Forces start to call Ukrainian capital Kyiv in French instead of Kiev
The French military began to use the transliteration of the name of the capital of Ukraine from the Ukrainian language Kyiv instead of the transliteration from Russian Kiev.
In particular, the Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the French Republic, General Fabien Mandon, in a post on X dated December 20 about exchanging experience with Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrsky and Chief of the Defense Staff of the Armed Forces of the United Kingdom Richard Knighton, wrote "Kyiv" as the meeting place.
The French Aid to Ukraine channel on the X social network noted this: "Following French diplomacy, the French armed forces have officially adopted the Ukrainian name of the capital of the country, which has become a victim of barbaric aggression of the Russian Federation."
"Therefore, we call on French-speaking journalists to follow this path. Support for Ukraine also extends to the linguistic sphere," the message says.
French President Emmanuel Macron has been writing the name of the Ukrainian capital in French as Kyiv in his messages in X since 2024, while a number of leading French media outlets still write Kiev.
