President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine has signed two laws that strictly reinforce his country’s national identity, banning Russian place names and making knowledge of the Ukrainian language and history a requirement for citizenship.

The moves late on Friday were Ukraine’s latest steps to distance itself from a long legacy of Russian domination, an increasingly emotional subject since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine began last year.

Already, streets across Ukraine have been renamed and statues of Russian figures like Catherine the Great have come toppling down. While such efforts to scrub away old Russian names have been going on since the fall of the Soviet Union, they have picked up pace since the war began in February 2022 in a process called “de-Russification”.

A law that Zelensky signed on Friday prohibits using place names that “perpetuate, promote or symbolise the occupying state or its notable, memorable, historical and cultural places, cities, dates, events,” and “its figures who carried out military aggression against Ukraine”.