>> Friendship of Peoples in Kyiv
The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy recognized the former Arch of Friendship of Peoples in Kyiv (now the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People) as an object that cannot be entered into the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine.
From now on, the monument can be dismantled. This was reported by the ministry on April 16.
The monument has lost its status as a monument of history and may be dismantled, the message says.
The Arch of Friendship of Peoples in Kyiv, was established in 1982 on the occasion of commemorating the 60th anniversary of the formation of the USSR and the 65th anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917. It belongs to the symbolism of Russian imperial policy and subject to complete dismantling.
Despite the Kyiv City Council renaming the monument to the “Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People”, the monument represents exclusively Soviet ideologues and connotations. This was emphasized in the expert opinion of the Expert Commission of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance on the issues of determining whether objects belong to the symbols of Russian imperial policy.
The conclusion also states that the myth of the “vozz” union” of two “fraternal” peoples does not correspond to historical realities. After all, in the conditions of the Russian Federation's large-scale invasion of Ukraine, this myth is actively used to justify the “legality” of Putin's territorial claims.
In the public consciousness of Kyivans, the monument is identified with the Soviet regime, and it is not by chance that the residents of the capital call it ” yoke”. By getting rid of the monumental “yoke”, we are freeing ourselves from the remnants of the Soviet dictatorship and Russian imperial influence, – summed up the acting head of state. Minister of Culture and Information Policy Rostyslav Karandeev.
Last week, the Kyiv City State Administration announced that they do not plan to dismantle the Arch of Friendship of Peoples in the capital's Khreshchaty Park, because it is a monument of local history, so by law it it is forbidden to demolish or move.
Arch of friendship of peoples in Kyiv