For spelling, the tz database uses the the most common spelling in English for the city even if this is not strictly correct locally. In this sense Europe/Kiev is like Europe/Rome, Europe/Athens, Europe/Warsaw, Europe/Moscow and America/Mexico_City, all English-language tz names that do not match local usage. To have names like Kiev properly localized for use in Ukraine, I suggest using the CLDR translation; see: http://www.unicode.org/cldr/charts/latest/by_type/timezones.europe.html This currently lists "Київ" for Ukrainian, "Kiev" for English, and many other alternatives for other languages. If these names are in error you might try writing to the CLDR maintainers, as this stuff is out of scope for the tz database proper. You are correct that the commentary should not take a position on whether Crimea is a republic or an autonomous republic. Let's change the comment accordingly (proposed patch attached). As the database is moving away from inventing time zone abbreviations, I'm not inclined to change its time zone abbreviation to a newly-invented one like "KMT".