In April 2015 the Verkhovna Rada passed a law banning communist and Nazi symbols.[42] Earlier, in 2012, the city of Lviv in Western Ukraine banned the public display of communist symbols.[2] On 17 December 2015, all communist parties were officially banned in Ukraine.[43] Singing or playing the former anthem of the Soviet Union or any other former anthems of the Soviet Republics is punishable with a sentence of up to five years in prison.[44] In July 2019, the Constitutional Court upheld the law, equating communism to Nazism.[45][46]