In recent years, the Ukrainian authorities have removed a number of Soviet-era monuments from the country’s streets and squares.
As part of the process, the statue of Mykola Shchors – one of the Red Army commanders – was dismantled from one of the city’s boulevards in Kiev on Saturday.
The statue of Shchors on horseback, erected in the 1950s, was removed from its plinth in central Kiev to the sound of applause from a group of onlookers. According to the local authorities, it will continue to be kept in a museum.
“The de-Russification and de-communization continues. We have already removed over 60 monuments related to the history and culture of Russia and the Soviet Union, Mykhailo Budilov, head of the department of territorial control of Kyiv, said in a statement.
In June, the Soviet coat of arms was removed from the 102-meter-high Motherland monument in the Ukrainian capital. The Soviet symbol, with the hammer and sickle, was replaced by a trident – which is the coat of arms of Ukraine.
In April 2015, the Ukrainian parliament banned most Soviet and communist symbols.