kyiv City Hall began demolishing a Soviet-era historical monument on Tuesday (April 26th) celebrating the friendship between Ukraine and Russia, following Moscow's invasion of the country two months ago.
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AFP journalists saw the head of one of the two figures in this statue collapse, representing a Russian worker and a Ukrainian worker holding together in their hands a Soviet symbol with the inscription "
friendship between peoples
", that a crane was trying to dismantle in the very center of Kiev.
"
Eight meters of metal of the so-called
'
friendship of the two peoples
'
dismantled.
And what is symbolic (...) the head of the Russian worker has fallen
, ”said the mayor of the Ukrainian capital, Vitali Klitschko, on Telegram.
Installed in Soviet times in 1982 to commemorate the "
reunification of Russia and Ukraine
“, this 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 carrying out 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.