The city of Moscow has renamed the official address of the US embassy in Moscow after pro-Russian separatists in Ukraine.

       The street housing the embassy building has now been labelled "Donetsk People's Republic Square".

       The move now forces the US diplomatic mission to refer to the separatist territory in Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

       Russia recognised the independence of the region in February -- just before it launched its invasion of Ukraine -- but the US and the West have not recognised it.

       "The US embassy in Russia has a new official address," Moscow City Hall said in a statement.

       This new street name was reportedly chosen after an online vote organised by the Moscow authorities in which more than 275,000 people took part.

       Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov has publicly supported the name change, following US support for Kyiv.

       The move mirrors a similar initiative in Washington, where the square in front of the Russian embassy was renamed "Boris Nemtsov Plaza" in 2018 after the Russian opposition figure was assassinated in 2015.

       A number of European countries have recently renamed Russian embassy addresses after "Ukrainian Heroes" amid the war.