Ukraine Gets Rid of Soviet Symbols on Motherland Monument in Kyiv

This aerial view taken on August 6, 2023 shows steeplejacks installing the coat of arms of Ukraine on the shield of the 62-meter Motherland Monument in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
This aerial view taken on August 6, 2023 shows steeplejacks installing the coat of arms of Ukraine on the shield of the 62-meter Motherland Monument in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
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Ukraine Gets Rid of Soviet Symbols on Motherland Monument in Kyiv

This aerial view taken on August 6, 2023 shows steeplejacks installing the coat of arms of Ukraine on the shield of the 62-meter Motherland Monument in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)
This aerial view taken on August 6, 2023 shows steeplejacks installing the coat of arms of Ukraine on the shield of the 62-meter Motherland Monument in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. (AFP)

Workers installed Ukraine's national trident on an iconic monument depicting the Motherland in Kyiv on Sunday, replacing old Soviet symbols in one of the most visible examples of breaking away from the past and Moscow's influence.

The monument, a 62-meter-tall (200-foot) steel statue of a female warrior, was built in 1981 on top of a hill on the right bank of the Dnipro River. Gazing sternly east, the figure holds a 16-meter (52-foot) sword in her right hand and an eight-meter-long shield in her left.

Originally, the shield bore the Soviet Union's coat of arms - a crossed hammer and sickle surrounded by ears of wheat.

In late July, workers used cables to lower dismantled parts of the coat of arms to the ground. On Saturday, they began installing a 500-kg (1,100-lb) trident on the shield, but were unable to complete the work due to adverse weather and an air attack warning for the capital.

The move has its roots in a movement to “decommunize” - or shed memories of the former Soviet Union - which Ukraine has stepped up since Russia's all-out invasion last year.

That cultural shift to a stronger Ukrainian self-identity was accompanied in recent years by a political tilt to the West that infuriated Russian President Vladimir Putin and was part of his justification for invading.

Kyiv says the invasion appears to be an imperial mission to recreate the Soviet Union.

During the Maidan Revolution of 2014, demonstrators brought down statues of Vladimir Lenin, rejecting authoritarianism and communism and demanding closer ties with the European Union.

Ukraine outlawed Soviet symbols in 2015, the year after Russia annexed Crimea and backed separatist proxies in the country’s east.

Across Ukraine, hundreds of statues of Russian poets and Soviet generals were torn down or defaced, and public art and propaganda murals were covered up or removed.

Thousands of streets and dozens of towns and villages were renamed. Streets and squares previously named after Soviet party leaders or generals were given names associated with national history, prominent Ukrainians or friends of the Ukrainian people, such as the late US Senator John McCain.



Home to Centuries of Heritage, Sudan’s Biggest Museum Is Looted and Wrecked by a 2-Year War 

Windows of the Sudan National Museum, the home to the country's largest artifacts that date to different eras of Sudanese history, are shattered after nearly two years of war between the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP)
Windows of the Sudan National Museum, the home to the country's largest artifacts that date to different eras of Sudanese history, are shattered after nearly two years of war between the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP)
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Home to Centuries of Heritage, Sudan’s Biggest Museum Is Looted and Wrecked by a 2-Year War 

Windows of the Sudan National Museum, the home to the country's largest artifacts that date to different eras of Sudanese history, are shattered after nearly two years of war between the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP)
Windows of the Sudan National Museum, the home to the country's largest artifacts that date to different eras of Sudanese history, are shattered after nearly two years of war between the army and Rapid Support Forces (RSF), in Khartoum, Sudan, Thursday, April 3, 2025. (AP)

Inside Sudan's biggest museum, the exhibition halls once filled with statues and relics from centuries of ancient civilizations are trashed, littered with debris. The display cases stand empty and shattered. A mummy lies exposed in an open storage box. All the gold artifacts have been looted.

The Sudan National Museum has been wrecked by two years of war in Sudan, with most of its artifacts stolen. Authorities blame the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, which held this district of Khartoum along the banks of the Nile River for most of the conflict.

Since the Sudanese military regained control of the capital last month, officials have been working to assess the damage and loss in hopes of one day restoring the museum.

"The losses are extremely big and saddening. A significant number of antiquities were stolen," Gamal ElDeen Zain al-Abdeen, a senior official at the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums, told The Associated Press. "The RSF destroyed everything ... concerning the civilization of the Sudanese people."

The National Museum had thousands of pieces, dating back to the Paleolithic era well before the development of agriculture, and through the kingdoms of ancient Sudan. Many came from the Napatan era in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C., when pharaohs from Sudan ruled over much of ancient Egypt, or from the later Meroitic kingdom that built pyramids in Sudan. Other halls had later Christian and Islamic material.

Some pieces too heavy to carry remain in place. In the museum's garden, a line of stone lions remains, as do the Colossi of Tabo, two large pharaonic-style statues. Also remaining are three pharaonic temples that were moved from northern Sudan and reassembled at the museum in the 1960s to escape the rising waters of Lake Nasser from Egypt's construction of the High Dam.

But many objects are gone. Looters broke into the locked storerooms and made off with all the gold artifacts, Zain al-Abdeen said. But it was too early to know how much of the museum’s collection had been stolen, he said.

He blamed the RSF for the destruction, saying they had fighters in the museum at some point during the war.

The war in Sudan broke out in April 2023, after tensions between the Sudanese army and the rival RSF turned into battles in the streets of Khartoum and rapidly spread around the country. The RSF held much of Khartoum during the war, including the district of the museum.

Now that they have been driven out, the extent of the destruction from fighting and looting is coming clear.

"Khartoum in general has been destroyed, particularly the center of Khartoum," Zain al-Abdeen said. "No building was spared from the bloodshed and theft, and this is what I saw with my own eyes."

He said all the city's museums were damaged, particularly the Ethnography Museum, where walls were demolished and halls and offices burned.

The ransacking is a blow to a country with a rich heritage, one that has deep resonance among Sudanese but is often overlooked abroad because of Sudan's decades of instability.

UNESCO said in September it was concerned about looting at the Sudan National Museum, which it helped renovate in 2019. It warned that sale or removal of artifacts "would result in the disappearance of part of the Sudanese cultural identity and jeopardize the country’s recovery."

A UNESCO spokesperson said Friday that damage, looting and destruction of museums and cultural sites happened across Sudan's states of Khartoum, River Nile, Northern State, Gezeira and the Darfur region. An accurate assessment isn't possible due to the ongoing fighting.

The Sudan National Museum is among several that have undergone "extensive looting and substantial damage," according to UNESCO.

Sedeeq Mohamed Sedeeq, who lives near the museum, said the RSF vowed democracy and liberation but instead they are "erasing the oldest nation in history, erasing its history."

Reconstruction plans for destroyed museums will begin after committees assess the damage and recommend proposals for rehabilitation, Zein al-Abdeen said. The plans are expected to include building repairs, restoration of the antiquities storage areas and fixing the museum’s surrounding grounds.

At least 20,000 people have been killed since the war broke out, though the number is likely far higher. The war has also driven more than 14 million people from their homes and pushed parts of the country into famine.