The Odesa City Council did not support the draft decision on dismantling and moving the monument to Empress Catherine II to the regional historical and local history museum.
The decision was supported by only 17 members of the city council, reports local deputy from "European Solidarity" Petro Obukhov.
33 votes were needed to pass the decision, but only 17 were received. The others abstained, including the current mayor of Odesa, Gennadiy Trukhanov.
The group of initiators of the decision noted in the explanatory note that "the perpetuation of Russian, imperial, communist and anti-Ukrainian figures, events and symbols [...] in the form of monuments in the city of Odesa is unacceptable in the conditions of the war waged by the aggressor state, Russia Federation against Ukraine".
- On July 12, a petition entitled "In Odesa, replace the monument to Catherine II with a monument to the American actor Billy Herrington" gathered 25 000 signatures. According to the legislation, after that, within 3 months from the day of its publication, the president had to consider it.
- On July 13, another petition on the presidentʼs website about the demolition of the monument to Russian empress Catherine II in Odesa received 25 000 votes.
- On August 1, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded to a petition to replace the monument to Russian Empress Catherine II in Odesa with a monument to American gay porn actor Billy Herrington. He asked the Odesa City Council to consider the issues raised in the petition.