Kyiv mayor says fountain 'most neutral' replacement for Lenin monument

Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko believes that a fountain is the most neutral solution for the public space at the site of the former Vladimir Lenin monument opposite the Bessarabsky Market.

"We are making the public space accessible. There was a cut-off island there. Someone defends Lenin, someone wants to put up Skoropadsky, someone wants to put up a Cossack carrying a cross. There are so many proposals and every sculptor wants to place some sculpture in this spot… This place has very negative energy. Whatever we put there, many questions arise. You cannot imagine how many people come to me every day with a proposal to put someone there: only this person and no other. And whoever we put up, there will be many different opinions: why this one and not that one? They will fight for it, there will be a big, to use the word, s-tstorm," Klitschko said during a meeting of the Kyiv Council of Barrier-Free Access on Wednesday.

The mayor emphasized that a classic Kyiv fountain is the most neutral solution, and making the territory accessible will cause it to "start living, because people should be able to approach the fountain."

Discussing the renovation of this public space in terms of equipping the territory according to accessibility principles and modern urban environment standards, Deputy Head of the Kyiv City State Administration Valentyn Mondryivsky stated that there is no finished project yet. Work is ongoing, as the previously presented renderings did not meet construction norms.

As reported, there are plans to renovate the public space at the corner of Taras Shevchenko Boulevard and Khreshchatyk Street in central Kyiv. Specifically, on the site of the former Lenin monument, plans include landscaping, benches, lighting, convenient pathways, and a fountain.

Head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINR) Oleksandr Alforov expressed the opinion that a monument to Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky should stand at the site of Lenin monuments in Kyiv. He also considers the decision to install a fountain at the former Lenin site to be ideologically dangerous.

In April, the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy called on city authorities to take into account expert assessments and public positions when implementing the initiative to install a fountain on the site of the former Lenin monument.