Ukrainian banknote honoring poet killed by Russia faces redesign after Russian-style typeface backlash
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The National Bank of Ukraine said on July 15 that it will change the lettering on its planned Hr 2,000 banknote after public backlash that the inscription too closely resembled a Russian typeface.
Following the announcement on July 10 that the new banknote would honor 20th century Ukrainian poet Vasyl Stus, a number of people in the professional design community publicly raised concerns that the denomination inscription proposed by the National Bank’s artists too closely resembled an unofficial Cyrillic adaptation of a typeface of Russian origin.
These concerns were heightened by the fact that Stus was a dissident who died in a Russian penal colony in 1985 because of his pro-Ukrainian views.
"Vasyl Stus is the conscience of the nation and a moral absolute. A banknote bearing his portrait must be flawless in every line. We will not engage in graphological debates — the National Bank holds the appropriate license, and legally there are no issues. But for us, this is a matter of values," Andriy Pyshnyy, governor of the National Bank of Ukraine, said in a statement.
"When the inscription on a banknote featuring Stus is associated with the work of a citizen of the aggressor state, the very existence of such an association is sufficient. There must be no Russian shadow on a banknote honoring the poet whom Russia killed."
The National Bank said its artists design banknotes using a "secure software environment" that "prevents the use of unauthorized third-party elements, including external font packages," meaning the banknotes could not have featured the actual Russian typeface.
The new lettering on the banknote will follow the official Cyrillic version of the Bickham Script typeface without any changes or customizations, according to the National Bank.
The redesign will reportedly not delay the banknote’s release, since production has not started yet.
The new Hr 2,000 note is still set to enter circulation on Sept. 4, 2026.
