City Council: UNESCO response needed for demolition of Pushkin monument in Odesa

This was stated by Ivan Liptuga, head of the Department of Culture and European Integration of the Odesa City Council, in a commentary to Ukrinform.

Liptuga explained that the monument is located in the UNESCO protected area, which means that any action in this area must be coordinated with the organization.

“The law on decolonization [the Law of Ukraine “On Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Russian Imperial Policy in Ukraine and Decolonization of Place Names”] has a number of exceptions, in particular, the zones of World Cultural Heritage Sites are exceptions. That is, our entire 618-hectare zone falls under this. Any action there, from changing the layout of the neighborhood to simply replacing pipes, requires a response from UNESCO,” Liptuga said.

Now, the official says, the city council has sent letters to the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and communicated with UNESCO about what to do next with the monuments in the protected zone.

“But UNESCO is also a very cautious and bureaucratic organization here, so we won't get a quick response from them. It's a very long procedure. We write to the Ministry of Culture, they write to the UNESCO executive company in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs sends it to Paris, and the answer comes back to us in the same way,” said Ivan Liptuga.

As a reminder, in an interview with Ukrinform, the head of the Odesa Regional State Administration, Oleh Kiper, said that the Cabinet of Ministers had excluded monuments to Russian and Soviet figures from the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Cultural Heritage of National Significance, including the monuments to Pushkin on Primorsky Boulevard and Vorontsov on Soborna Square. This means that the monument is not under UNESCO protection.

As Ukrinform reported, 84 place names will be renamed in Odesa. A number of place names in Odesa region will also receive new names.