Sandbag sculpture: how Kyiv is shielding statues from Russian bombs
Charlotte Higgins and Artem Mazhulin, Kyiv | 18 Oct 2022The boarded-up monument to Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv. Photograph: Ed Ram/The GuardianFor two Mondays in a row Russia has launched missiles at Kyiv’s city centre, in the most intense strikes on the capital since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The targets of these missiles are unclear – if they were meant to strike crucial infrastructure, the only real clarity is that they have exploded in central, residential districts, falling close to parks, offices and cultural buildings.
Two of last week’s explosions were so close to significant national monuments that some speculated that the statues themselves – sandbagged and protected – might have been the targets.
One of those missiles cratered a children’s playground a few metres from a monument to Taras Shevchenko, Ukraine’s national poet. Fundamental in creating a Ukrainian-language literature, he was exiled by Tsar Nicholas I and banned for writing or making art for a decade. In a neat turn of history, his monument, when it was erected in 1939, replaced an earlier statue of that very same Russian ruler.
Another missile, landing on the other side of the park bearing Shevchenko’s name, hit a road intersection, part of a morning of Russian strikes that killed seven and injured more than 50 in the city. It also scattered hoarding protecting a monument to the statesman and scholar Mykhailo Hrushevsky, a key figure in the pre-revolutionary Ukrainian nationalist movement, and the author of a 10-volume history of the country. . .
. . . One Kyiv public sculpture that is neither sandbagged nor boxed up, and lacks protection of any kind, is the imposing equestrian statue dedicated to Mykola Shchors. The Ukrainian officer fought in the Red Army against the independent Ukrainian People’s Republic that was briefly established between 1917 and 1920.
Graffitied statue dedicated to Mykola Shchors. Photograph: Ed Ram/The GuardianThe statue is daubed with graffiti, translating to slogans such as “demolish me completely!” and “butcher”. There are plenty of people in Kyiv who would not mind at all if one of Vladimir Putin’s missiles happened to hit that one.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/oct/18/sandbag-sculpture-kyiv-shielding-statues-from-russian-bombs