The authorities in a Western Ukrainian region have ordered the demolition of dozens of Soviet monuments
The Russian Foreign Ministry has denounced the reported demolition of a Soviet war memorial in a town in Western Ukraine.
Former Ukrainian Prime Minister Nikolay Azarov took to Telegram on Friday to post pictures of the destruction of the ‘Hill of Glory’ memorial in the town of Kalush in Ivano-Frankovsk Region, located around 180km from the Polish border.
Commenting on the demolition, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said “there will be no glory in that place.”
Pictures released by Azarov showed that an inscription reading “1941-1945,” a reference to the Great Patriotic War, had been removed from the monument, along with a large stone panel with bas-reliefs of soldiers’ faces. The term the Great Patriotic War is used in Russia to describe the country’s part in World War II.
Azarov condemned the move, writing: “The Kiev regime, which has never built as much as a kennel in its life, continues to destroy monuments in Ukraine, trying to make Ukrainians forget their roots and their history.” He went on to suggest that a nation that does not know its own history is “doomed” to repeat it.
Azarov led Ukraine’s national government from 2010 to 2014, until a violent Western-backed coup in Kiev plunged the country into a decade of bloody turmoil.
Last week, Ivano-Frankovsk’s regional authorities issued instructions to dismantle 76 Soviet monuments and memorial signs, including those to victims of the Nazis, by August 27.
“Absolutely all” Soviet monuments have already been dismantled in the neighboring Lviv region, local authorities said last week.
The Ukrainian government adopted so-called ‘decommunization’ laws in 2015 that stipulated that monuments dating to the country’s Soviet past should be removed, and that public places named after Soviet communists be renamed.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier described the destruction of Soviet war monuments abroad as “stunning ignorance” that will lead to “bad consequences.” He emphasized that Russia strives to preserve its cultural heritage.
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