Soviet friendship sculpture dismantled in Kyiv, more to go as Russia continue its invasion

Workers dismantle an imposing Soviet-era bronze monument symbolising the friendship between Russia and Ukraine in historic Kyiv district of Pecherskyi on April 26, 2022. The head of a Russian worker, accidentally decapitated while the monument to friendship was pulled down.

The 40-year-old statue, depicting a Ukrainian and a Russian worker on a plinth, was pulled down on the order of local authorities in Kyiv.

It is one of the first steps of a plan to demolish about 60 monuments and to rename dozens of streets associated with the Soviet Union, Russia and Russian figures, including the writers Tolstoy, Dostoevsky and Pushkin, as a result of the war between the two countries.