Symbolism as a priority: Mykolaiv Regional Council has been working on communities' coats of arms during the war

After the region adopted a new coat of arms, officials turned to the flags and coats of arms of the communities

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01 Aug 2026

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заступник голови Миколаївської обласної ради Денис Андрєєв

While Ukraine continues to repel Russian aggression, the Mykolaiv Oblast Council has found another priority area of work — a review of the coats of arms and flags of all towns and villages in the oblast. Methodological recommendations, regulations on local symbols, and a separate oblast register are being prepared for the communities.

About the large-scale “coat-of-arms review” told deputy and deputy chair of the Mykolaiv Oblast Council, Denys Andriiev on the air of the MART TV channel. According to him, he identified the issue of local symbols as one of his priorities immediately after being appointed deputy chair of the oblast council under Anton Tabunshchyk.

— Our task was to create such symbols that would reflect Mykolaiv Oblast 100%, so that a person from another region, seeing the coat of arms, would immediately understand that this is Mykolaiv Oblast. We even conducted research among residents of other regions, and the option that deputies ultimately chose was the one that best identified as Mykolaiv Oblast, — he said.

The oblast council created an advisory Council on Heraldry and involved the Ukrainian Heraldic Society in the work. Officials explain the activity by the need to bring local symbols into compliance with legislation, emphasize the communities’ Ukrainian identity, and get rid of visual elements associated with the Russian imperial legacy.

At the same time, the methodological recommendations for creating symbols of territorial communities were officially approved by the Council on Heraldry as early as April 10, 2025. At that time, representatives of the oblast council also announced plans to create a register that would systematize the coats of arms and flags of the communities of Mykolaiv Oblast. Thus, work on this important heraldic front has been ongoing for more than a year.

Now the oblast council has stated that it is reviewing the symbols of all towns and villages of Mykolaiv Oblast for compliance with the law. The prepared regulation on local symbols is planned to be brought to a session of the oblast council and then passed on to deputies at other levels.

At the same time, the oblast council cannot independently change the coats of arms and flags of communities. Final decisions remain with city, settlement, and village councils. The oblast council only develops recommendations, and symbol projects may undergo examination by the Ukrainian Heraldic Society.

Prior to this, deputies had already managed to update the oblast’s own symbols. On April 16, 2026, at the 35th extraordinary session of the oblast council, the new coat of arms and flag of Mykolaiv Oblast were approved. The central figure of the coat of arms became Saint Nicholas.

According to official data, the option with Saint Nicholas was supported by 46 of 52 territorial communities, an alternative project with an ancient amphora, a Cossack spear and a maritime anchor was chosen by 4 communities, and 2 communities either did not decide or did not support any option.

The decolonization of symbols and the restoration of Ukrainian historical identity are certainly needed. The question is only how appropriate it is, during a full-scale war, to proclaim coats of arms and flags as one of the main priorities of the oblast council leadership. Especially after the oblast spent almost a year choosing its own coat of arms, holding meetings, expert reviews, polls and repeated votes.

Now the turn has come to all towns and villages. So communities should prepare: after air raid alerts, repairing damaged houses and solving daily problems, they may have to carefully check whether shields, anchors, ears of grain and waves are correctly positioned on their coats of arms.

Reminder: deputy chair of the Mykolaiv Oblast Council, Denys Andriiev, was already at the center of a loud scandal over a possible gunshot wound during a hunt in Voznesensk Raion. In December 2025, the police investigated reports that the official had allegedly been shot in the thigh. Later, Andriiev himself denied the shooting story and said that he slipped on a wet dam and, while falling, punctured his thigh on the remnants of reinforced concrete structures.

In addition, in 2014 Denys Andriiev was dismissed from the prosecutor’s office under the “lustration” law: during the presidency of Viktor Yanukovych he worked as deputy prosecutor of Mykolaiv Oblast, and before dismissal he headed the prosecutor’s office of Snihurivka Raion. At the same time, in the summer of 2020, an administrative court canceled the order on his lustration dismissal.

Reminder: at the end of July 2026 the government additionally allocated almost 420 million hryvnias for the salaries of officials of six frontline oblasts, including employees of the regional and district military administrations of Mykolaiv Oblast. Separately, the government instructed to prepare a decision on a special status for officials working in frontline regions. Thus, financial support for officials was strengthened, and now they have time for a thorough check of the coats of arms and flags of towns and villages.