"Away from Moscow": Rada backs renaming Ukraine's smallest coin, kopiyka, to shag
Photo: NBU

On Thursday, December 18, the Verkhovna Rada approved in first reading draft law No. 14093, which proposes renaming the kopiyka as the shag. The bill was supported by 264 members of parliament.

The initiative envisages amendments to legislation on the National Bank, pensions, capital markets, and the Tax Code, with related changes to be introduced under a separate draft law, No. 14094.

"This is not about a small coin — it is about a big choice. It is about who we stand with and who we have left behind forever. Even Ukraine’s coins will no longer be under Russian influence. It is a small step in metal, but a very big step in justice," said Ruslan Stefanchuk, the initiator of the bill.

Former National Bank governor and current MP from European Solidarity Stepan Kubiv compared the vote to the historic decisions taken by members of Ukraine’s first parliamentary convocation.

"Everyone will write their name today in the history of a future great and strong Ukraine," he said.

"Away from Moscow should be our slogan. By cutting ourselves off from Moscow even through our coinage, we are restoring historical justice," said Batkivshchyna MP Ivan Krulko.

The proposed renaming will not require the withdrawal of existing 50-kopiyka coins from circulation. Other kopiyka denominations are no longer in use, with the 10-kopiyka coin withdrawn on October 1. Fifty-shag coins will be introduced and circulated in parallel, without additional costs.

According to the explanatory note, Ukraine’s 1996 monetary reform established the hryvnia as the country’s national currency but did not fully sever ties with Russian monetary traditions. As a result, more than three decades after independence, Ukraine still uses a denomination — the kopiyka — that links it to Russia and is enshrined in law.

Aside from Ukraine, kopiykas (or kopeks) remain in circulation only in Russia, Belarus, and Moldova’s breakaway Transnistria region.

The term shag has deep historical roots. It derives from the Old Ukrainian words siag ("step") or shelyag, appears in folk proverbs and classical Ukrainian literature, and was used in the currency of the Ukrainian People’s Republic in 1918–1919.

  • The National Bank of Ukraine first proposed restoring the name shag for small-denomination coins in 2024. The initiative was supported by the Institute of History, the Institute of Linguistics, and the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory.