Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Thursday signed a law banning the import of commercial books from Russia in the latest step aimed at severing cultural ties between the two countries, Reuters reports.

“I believe that the law is correct,” Zelenskyy wrote on his Telegram channel, and also reported that the ban also applies to books printed in Belarus or in the territories of Ukraine occupied by Moscow’s troops.

The law adopted a year ago by the Kyiv parliament also stipulates the obligation to obtain a special license for the import of Russian-language books from third countries.

Zelenskyi’s office reported on Twitter that the regulatory act “will strengthen the protection of the cultural and informational space from Russian anti-Ukrainian propaganda.”

Ukraine continues the process of de-Russification

Authorities in Kyiv have begun what they describe as a process of “derussification” after the Russian invasion, saying Moscow has tried for centuries to suppress and destroy Ukrainian national identity.

Similar de-Russification campaigns have also been launched by Poland and the Baltic states, and the measures taken have often angered Moscow.

The Minister of Culture of Ukraine, Oleksandr Tkachenko, congratulated Zelensky on the promulgation of the law.

“The adoption of this legislative project will protect the sphere of Ukrainian book printing and distribution from the destructive influence of the Russian world,” he said in Telegram.

In February of this year, President Vladimir Putin, in turn, published a draft law in the cultural sphere, which prohibits the borrowing of foreign words into the Russian language.

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