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Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova's comment on Ukraine's fighting with historical monuments

29 December 2022 21:21
2671-29-12-2022

Ukraine continues in its consistent policy of falsifying its own history, destroying and revising the historical memory of its people. One of the components of this destructive policy is the fight against monuments. Many of them were installed decades ago by the ancestors of those who have now misappropriated the right to destroy this heritage. We have repeatedly pointed out that they have demolished most of the monuments of the Soviet era, including monuments to Vladimir Lenin to whom Ukraine owes its statehood. But Kiev isn't stopping at that. Now it has focused its anger on the great Russian poet Alexander Pushkin. Dozens of bar-reliefs, busts and monuments to Pushkin are being smashed in different cities. In a futile attempt to cancel Russian culture and ban people from talking and even thinking in the Russian language, the Ukrainian authorities are trying to remove everything that could compel the large Russian-speaking population to realise what they may be deprived of.

They have demolished monuments to Marshall Georgy Zhukov for the same reason, as well as monuments to Hero of the Soviet Union General Nikolay Vatutin, the commander of the First Ukrainian Front, to rank-and-file Red Army soldiers and guerrillas who sacrificed their lives for the liberation of Ukraine during the Great Patriotic War. The neo-Nazi Kiev regime wants to deprive Ukrainians of their Victory over fascism, which was achieved through the concerted effort of all peoples of the former Soviet Union.

Now they have started removing the monuments to those outstanding leaders that promoted the prosperity and power of the Russian state that included the territory of present-day Ukraine. They were upholding its independence in the struggle against foreign enemies hundreds of years ago.

A group of people acted like criminals under the cover of night on December 29, 2022. In fact, they are criminals because they oppose the historical truth. They tore down the monuments to the Founders of Odessa, devoted to Catherine the Great and her associates. Made in 2007 and demolished two decades later, this monument was restored by the grateful residents of Odessa in 2007. They wanted to recognise the great ruler, who promoted the rapid development of their land in the Russian Empire and turned Odessa into its gate to the sea, a real "pearl by the sea" that was known all over the world.

But this pitiful antic of insane Russophobes will not change the fact that Odessa owes its existence to Catherine the Great. Likewise, the destruction of the monuments to the outstanding military leader, Generalissimos Alexander Suvorov in Odessa and Izmail will not change the fact that these cities developed only because of his victories.

The history of these places, like the entire history of Ukraine, is inseparable from Russian history and any attempt by the Kiev regime to rewrite it are doomed to fail. Everything will return to normal, and the ruined monuments will again occupy their rightful place in the centre of Odessa, Izmail and other cities in present-day Ukraine that continues to suffer from the oppression of aggressive radical nationalists.