The statue had been unbolted during the 2014 revolution, in an effort to “decommunize” public space.
Russian occupation authorities said on Saturday they had handed over a statue of Lenin to Melitopol in southeastern Ukraine that was torn down during the 2014 revolution.
The head of the Moscow-installed Zaporizhia regional authority, Vladimir Rogov, posted on social media several photos of the statue of the Bolshevik leader in the Russian-occupied city from the very first days of the offensive in late February.
“After seven years, the statue of Vladimir Lenin finds its place in Melitopol“, he welcomed, saying that the Ukrainian municipal authorities had removed in 2015.
Ukraine tore down many statues of Lenin in the wake of the 2014 revolution, which led to the removal of a pro-Russian president, in an effort to “decommunizationof the public space.
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Moscow has repeatedly condemned this attempt by kyiv to distance itself from the Soviet past and Russian influence.
In Russia, almost every major city in the country has a statue of the founder of the Soviet Union in their city center.
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