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9 Feb. () –
The Kiev Mayor’s Office has removed this Thursday the statue of the commander-in-chief of the Soviet Union Nikolai Vatutin, one of the main architects in the liberation of the Ukrainian capital from the hands of the Nazis during World War II, in line with the policies that both Ukraine and other countries have cracked down on these tributes in retaliation for the Russian invasion.
The removal of this statue is the most symbolic of the campaign that Kiev is carrying out to “de-Russify” the capital, as the mayor, Vitali Klitschko, has defined the process, which will be completed with the name change of some thirty streets and squares.
“We are getting rid of the Soviet names and symbols associated with the aggressor country. (…) We must eliminate and forget forever the old Soviet and Russian names. Instead, we should name our streets after our heroes,” he has Said after the measure was approved this Thursday.
Vatutin’s statue has been removed from Marinsky Park and moved to the Aviation Museum, where the carving of Soviet pilot Valery Chkalov is already awaiting, while Victory Square — which commemorates the Soviet victory over the Nazis — will return. to have its original name Galitska square.
Since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kiev has renamed hundreds of streets, squares and other spaces in the capital, liberated by the Soviets on November 6, 1943 after more than two years of occupation by Nazi Germany.
The removal of monuments and name changes in furniture and urban streets in various cities, although they have been frequent since the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014, have intensified in the last year after the invasion.
In solidarity with Ukraine, which was part of the Soviet Union until its independence in 1991, other countries with a Soviet past, such as the Baltic States, Poland, and even Finland, have also carried out the dismantling of these types of tributes.
