KIEV, February 25. /ITAR-TASS/. Ukraine’s department of the International Committee of the Blue Shield ICOM, the organization responsible for the global preservation of museums and other cultural heritage, has urged the Ukrainian people to stop destroying monuments officially registered in the national and local record books, the committee’s officials told the media on Tuesday.
“We want to remind the activists that several monuments to Vladimir Lenin, as well as a number of other statues, are of great national or local importance, therefore their dismantlement requires special procedures”, the organization’s appeal said.
The committee officials stressed that it was important to stop the uncontrolled monuments’ destruction and asked the activists to check the monuments' status first and get in touch with regional museums of local lore and services for monuments’ preservation.
According to the committee’s data, some monuments of national importance can be seen on the Ukrainian government’s official website. This list is incomplete however.
The appeal was issued after several monuments to Vladimir Lenin were torn down in Ukraine over the past few days.
- Right-wing opposition pulls down monument to Lenin in Ukraine’s Zhitomir
- In Ukraine radicals destroyed monuments to Lenin in Chernigov and Dnepropetrovsk
- Communists in central Ukraine take vandalized Lenin’s statue to museum
- Monument to Lenin in Kharkov will not be pulled down without authorities’ decision