MOSCOW, August 6. /TASS/. Work to take down the Soviet emblem from the Motherland Monument statue to replace it with the national symbol of Ukraine once again demonstrates the nature of the Kiev regime, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said.
"This is the essence of the Kiev regime and the cyborgs that are at the head of it. Mother cannot be renamed. She is the only one. And the only thing you can do with her is to love her. And this is what they don't know how to do," the diplomat wrote on her Telegram channel.
Work to remove the Soviet Union’s emblem from Europe’s tallest statue, the Motherland Monument, is underway in Kiev. 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 Soviet Union’s emblem will go to museum.
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 II. 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.