The decision was made in a unanimous vote on Thursday, Polish state news agency PAP reported.
From now on, the area in Gdańsk’s Wrzeszcz district, not far from the Russian consulate general, will be called “The Plaza of Heroic Mariupol,” officials said.
'Symbol of staunch resistance against criminal aggression'
Legislators in the Polish Baltic port city noted that before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “Mariupol was a similar city to Gdańsk … open, located by the sea, and with a similar number of inhabitants.”
“But it has been practically razed to the ground” by the Russian invaders, “and today it resembles the Polish capital Warsaw after its 1944 uprising,” Gdańsk councillors said in a statement.
“And yet the besieged city is still standing … Neither its residents nor the heroic defenders have deserted it,” the statement said, adding that Mariupol “has become legendary, a symbol of staunch resistance against criminal aggression.”
Expressing their confidence that this resistance “will succeed,” the Gdańsk councillors concluded: “We are all Mariupol.”
‘An important decision for Ukrainians’
Ukraine’s consul general in Gdańsk thanked the city's legislators for naming the plaza in tribute to Mariupol, according to officials.
Oleksandr Plodystyi said it was “a highly important decision for Ukrainians and Ukraine,” the PAP news agency reported.
The name “The Plaza of Heroic Mariupol” was originally suggested by the Ukrainian city’s ayor Vadym Boychenko, who last month addressed the Gdańsk City Council via video link, officials said.
Thursday was day 64 of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
(pm/gs)
Source: PAP, gdansk.pl