KIEV, November 8. /TASS/. A monument to Catherine II and her associates in Odessa will be taken down in the near future, chairman of the Zelensky regime’s regional military administration there said on Tuesday.

"In the next few days, this issue will be resolved. Four statues of Odessa’s founders (Grigory Potemkin, Platon Zubov, Francois de Wollant and Jose de Ribas - TASS) will return to their previous location in a museum of local history. The statue of Catherine will be taken to a safe location since her sculpture has no artistic value," Sergey Bratchuk told the Rada TV station.

Preparations for dismantling the monument to the Russian empress began on November 6. A several-meter-high fence was installed around the monument while the statue itself was draped in black tarp. The final decision on demolishing the monument will be made at a city council session scheduled for November 30.

 

Kiev regime’s war on monuments

 

Lately, the monument to Catherine the Great on whose decree the city was founded which was restored in 2007 (initially erected in 1900 - TASS) has been frequently defaced by vandals. Additionally, on July 5, an online petition proposing to replace it with a monument to actor Billy Herrington known for his roles in pornographic movies in the 1990s garnered 25,000 votes necessary for the petition to be considered by Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky. On July 13, a second petition on demolishing the monument amassed 25,338 votes. On August 1, Zelensky reacted to both petitions and asked the city’s authorities to consider this issue. That said, he noted the necessity of getting rid of Russia-related objects.

Then, Odessa Mayor Gennady Trukhanov asserted that he did not support the war on monuments given the military hostilities in progress. What’s more, under the current conditions an attempt to rewrite the city’s history may polarize society. After this and some other of his statements, a petition appeared on Zelensky’s site urging to "check his remarks."

Lately, in Ukraine, based on the Kiev regime’s crusade aimed at full ‘decommunization’ and ‘de-russification’, Russia-related monuments are being targeted for dismantling and geographic locations with Russia-associated names are being changed.