Kyiv City Hall on Tuesday began demolishing a Soviet-era historical monument celebrating the friendship between Ukraine and Russia, following Moscow’s invasion of the country launched two months ago.
Ukrainians have reached the Soviet monument under the Arch of Friendship of Peoples in kyiv. It is being dismantled. pic.twitter.com/eIuKYWY3cD
— Chebureki Vibes (@PelmeniPusha) April 26, 2022
AFP journalists in kyiv saw the head of one of the two figures in this statue collapse, as a crane was trying to dismantle it in the center of kyiv.
In kyiv during dismantling of a monument of workers under the Arch of “Friendship of the Peoples” at the Russian worker the head fell off
Another bad sign for racists.#ArmUkraineNow #GenocideOfUkrainians #StopRussianAggression #StopPutin #terrorism pic.twitter.com/M1GSQBnpcR
— Natali (@NataliN78831281) April 26, 2022
“Eight meters of metal of the so-called “friendship of the two peoples” dismantled. And what is symbolic (…) the head of the Russian worker fell off”said on Telegram the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitali Klitschko.
Installed in Soviet times in 1982 to commemorate the “reunification of Russia and Ukraine”, the massive bronze statue will be completely dismantled by Tuesday evening, he added.
Vitali Klitschko justified this decision by Moscow’s desire to “destroy the state and the Ukrainians” with the invasion of the country launched on February 24.
Another monument of this set will be dismantled at a later date, while the third, an arch, will be renamed and illuminated in Ukrainian colors.
According to the mayor of kyiv, 60 other monuments, bas-reliefs and signs associated with the USSR and Russia will be dismantled soon. More than 460 streets will also be renamed.
Ukraine has been pursuing a policy of “decommunization” for years, in particular by dismantling the statues of Lenin and changing the names of certain cities to give them back their name before the Bolshevik revolution of 1917.