Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has criticized what he calls Russia's attempts to privatize Ukrainian historic events and persons.

"Another monument was unveiled the other day: at the Kremlin, right near the still unburied Vladimir Lenin, they opened a monument to our Prince Vladimir of Kyiv, the first of the apostles [sic!]. This is yet another attempt of hybrid privatization of history," Poroshenko said at the unveiling ceremony of a monument to prominent Ukrainian philosopher and poet Hryhoriy (Gregory) Skovoroda in Ljubljana, Slovenia.

The monument to Prince Vladimir was opened on Borovitskaya Square in central Moscow on November 4. The erection of the monument was initiated by the Russian Military-Historical Society.