In the Albanian capital Tirana, the street on which the embassies of Russia, Ukraine, Serbia and Kosovo are located, has been renamed “Rruga Ukraina e Lirë”, in English: Free Ukraine (literally: Ukraine the Free). This was ordered by the mayor of the city Erion Veliaj in March to show solidarity with Ukraine. On Twitter he wrote: “The Serbia war on Kosovo & the Russian war on Ukraine have defined our generation. This street will define our city.” Ukrainian flags hang from all lampposts on this street, and the curbs are painted in the Ukrainian national colors of blue and yellow.
Similar measures are reported from Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania, and Riga, the capital of Latvia. There, streets have been renamed “Street of Ukrainian Heroes”. Citizens’ petitions in the German cities of Berlin and Bonn to rename the streets in front of the Russian Embassy and Consulate will not succeed. This is because in Germany a lengthy bureaucratic process is needed for this.
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Blick auf die russische Botschaft in Tirana. Foto: tünews INTERNATIONAL / Michael Seifert.
