The former Peoplesʼ Friendship Arch (now the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People) will not be dismantled, but the space near it will receive a new concept. The city authorities say that "the meaning of the monument has been rethought."
This was reported in the Department of Culture of the Kyiv City State Administration (KCSA).
The city authorities note that spending significant funds from the city budget on dismantling the Arch is not the most urgent issue today. KSCA noted that during martial law, the city primarily directs finances to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine, the smooth functioning of the budget sphere, and solving the vital needs of the capitalʼs residents.
In addition, the city authorities declare that Kyiv is currently in the final stage of decommunization and de-Russification of objects. In total, representatives of the capital authorities, together with specialists of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Institute of National Remembrance and experts, singled out 297 monuments related to the history and culture of Russia and the USSR, which were recommended to be removed or moved to special places of storage of such objects. Among them are 95 monuments and more than 200 memorial signs and decoration elements.
This week, the director of the cultural heritage protection department of the KCSA Maryna Solovyova said that the demolition of the arch could be dangerous, because parts of this monument form a retaining wall that prevents a landslide. Therefore, the dismantling of the object will be difficult, expensive and, moreover, dangerous.
The Peoplesʼ Friendship Arch in Kyiv was created for the 60th anniversary of the formation of the USSR and was solemnly opened on the eve of the 65th anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917.
The arch connected two sculptural compositions: workers — a Russian and a Ukrainian, holding a ribbon with the Order of Friendship of Peoples, and a stele with a multi-figure group symbolizing the Pereyaslav Council of 1654.
Figures of a Russian and a Ukrainian with the Order of Friendship of Peoples were dismantled in April 2022. Subsequently, KSCA renamed the Peoplesʼ Friendship Arch to the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People.
However, last week the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy unilaterally stripped the arch of its status as a historical monument — the agency wants KCSA to dismantle it.
The expert commission of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance also believes that the Arch is a symbol of Russian imperial policy and should be completely dismantled. According to experts, despite being renamed the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People, the monument represents exclusively Soviet connotations.