Kyiv (Ukraine) (AFP) – Kyiv's gigantic Motherland monument representing a woman warrior towering over the capital reopened for public viewing Friday with its Soviet hammer and sickle emblem replaced with the Ukrainian trident.
The 62-metre (203-foot) statue was dismantled this summer, over a year into Moscow's devastating offensive, to replace the Soviet emblem with the trident -- the Ukrainian coat of arms.
The titanium statue was built in 1981, when Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union, in honour of the Soviet victory over the Nazis.
Kyiv started taking down or modifying Soviet-era monuments after its 2014 pro-EU revolution and Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine has accelerated that process. It stands in front of a museum.
"The dismantling of old Soviet symbols is the most visually convincing evidence of the fundamental changes taking place in our country," Yuriy Savchuk, the museum's director, told AFP.
"After all, this issue has not been resolved for, let's be honest, 32 years," he added, referring to the date when the Soviet Union fell.
The museum exhibited part of the Soviet-era coat of arms that was removed.
Alla Sovivska, a Ukrainian language teacher who came to the exhibition, welcomed that the statue now featured a trident.
"We need this symbol in our capital," she said. "Especially in this difficult period."
The exhibition also featured Ukrainian national heroes such as poet Taras Shevchenko and downed Russian drones.
"I think it is important for Kyiv residents to see what is killing them," exhibition curator Oleksandr Shamylakh said.
He added that he hoped foreign delegations that come to Kyiv will pass through the museum.