MOSCOW, July 21. /TASS/. Work to remove the Soviet Union’s emblem from Europe’s tallest statue, the Motherland Monument, have begun in Kiev, Ukraine’s TSN news agency reported.
The agency published on its Telegram channel a video of several workers preparing to remove the emblem from the upper section of the shield, held by the 102-meter-tall statue.
On July 13, Ukraine’s state commission for architecture and urban development issued a permission for removing the emblem of hammer and sickle and replacing it with a trident, portrayed on Ukraine’s small coat of arms. The decision was made despite concerns that the works may affect the statue’s balance and stability.
Ukraine’s Culture and Information Policy Minister Alexander Tkachenko said the work should be completed before the country’s Independence Day, marked on August 24.
The overall cost of the effort is estimated at 28 million hryvnias ($765,000).
The 102-meter sculpture weighting 560 tons is a part of the Museum of the History of Ukraine in World War Two. It was unveiled on the right bank of the Dnieper River during Victory Day celebrations of 1981.
The statue of a woman raising a sword in one hand and a shield with the emblem of the Soviet Union in the other was designed by Soviet sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich.