Pushkin statue to be removed in Odesa if granted a UNESCO go-ahead
Source: Ukrinform
Writing for a fall? The statue of the 18th-century poet Alexander Pushkin will be taken down in Odesa, according to Odesa regional governor Oleh Kiper as Ukrainian cities try to get rid of any traces of Russian colonial legacy – many see Pushkin as part of this pro-Russian sentiment.
“All necessary orders have been signed and distributed to the relevant departments,” said the governor, adding “The Pushkin monument is on the list, and today all the letters have been sent out.”
The Russian-related monuments have long been a hot potato though the Feb.24 invasion largely swayed the public opinion in the favor of their removal.
There is one hitch as such move will need to be green-lit by UNESCO since the Odesa city center was earlier granted its protection status , which can make the Pushkin statue removal a rather distant option.
The head of Odesa City Council’s Department of Culture and Eurointegration, Ivan Liptuga, warned it really can take a while.
“UNESCO is a highly cautious and bureaucratic organization, so we won’t get a quick response. It’s a lengthy process. We write to the Ministry of Culture, they forward it to the UNESCO executive body through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the MFA sends it to Paris, and then the response travels back the same way,” Liptuga explained.
In my previous column, I wrote about social innovations in Ukraine. Those innovations are part of civic resilience and the democratization of security, which Europe is paying close attention to right now. The EU is trying to work out how to spread responsibility for its own security across society as a whole, rather than leaving it to institutions alone. It is looking for concrete ways to bring ordinary people into the work of defense and resistance.
Petro Poroshenko’s lawyers have appealed to the High Anti-Corruption Court demanding that NABU be obligated to register proceedings regarding the fact of exerting influence on the court and to recognize Petro Poroshenko as a victim in the case of the Deputy Head of the Office of the President, Iryna Mudra, due to her pressure on Supreme Court judges who were considering a lawsuit to overturn sanctions.
Internationally recognized brands and financial institutions should direct capital to Ukraine now, not waiting for the hostilities to end. This was emphasized by Rinat Akhmetov, president of FC Shakhtar, during a working visit to UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland, where he met with UEFA President Aleksander Čeferin.
In recent days, Moscow’s official rhetoric has been dominated by hysteria over the decision of…
In 2025, the deadliest year yet for civilians, Ukraine’s three largest charitable foundations raised a record 105.9 billion hryvnias. It is more than the years 2022–2024 combined. According to the UN, humanitarian aid in Ukraine was delivered by more than 450 organisations, reaching five million people over the course of the year. Civic foundations hold licences to purchase lethal weapons, which is a function states have monopolised for centuries. These record sums were underwritten by international government grants, which means foreign states now channel billions directly through Ukrainian civic funds, bypassing inter-state channels. It is hard to imagine a stronger institutional trust in civil society.