Culture Ministry removes historical status of Kyiv's Peoples' Friendship Arch, allows for dismantling

Ukraine's Ministry of Culture removed the formerly-named Peoples' Friendship Arch from the state register of monuments of national importance due to its association with Russia's ambitions for Soviet reunification, indicating that the monument "may be dismantled."

"The myth of 'reunification' of the two 'fraternal' peoples embodied in the monument does not correspond to historical realities," the Culture Ministry news release on April 17 read. "This myth is actively used to justify (Russian President Vladimir) Putin's territorial claims."

The monument, erected in 1982 for the 60th anniversary of the formation of the Soviet Union and the 65th anniversary of the October Revolution of 1917, was renamed The Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People by Kyiv City Council in May 2022 following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

A bronze Soviet-era statute of two Soviet workers that stood under the arch, symbolizing the so-called "friendship of two peoples" between Russia and Ukraine, was also dismantled in April 2022.

According to a BBC Ukraine report published in April 2024, Kyiv City Council has studied the idea of dismantling the arch, however, the monument's protected status outlawed its removal.

No decision on the arch's potential dismantling has been made.

"Despite the renaming by the Kyiv City Council to the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People, the monument represents exclusively Soviet ideological themes and connotations, thus posing a threat to Ukraine's national security," the release read.

The Ukrainian parliament outlawed most Soviet and communist symbols, street names, and moments in 2015 as part of the decommunization process. Monuments around the country have since come down or been changed, although the sheer number of Soviet-era statues and symbols has prolonged the completion of the project.

In April 2023, President Volodymyr Zelensky also signed a law that prohibits naming geographic sites in Ukraine after Russian figures or historical events associated with Russian aggression.