A bas-relief from a memorial to Soviet soldiers was dismantled in Sumy.

In Sumy, on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the Victory, the authorities removed a bas-relief and a stele with the dates of the beginning and end of the Great Patriotic War from a memorial dedicated to Soviet soldiers. This was announced on May 7 by former Prime Minister of Ukraine Mykola Azarov.

"In Sumy, right on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the Victory, the Kiev regime dismantled the bas-relief and the dates of the beginning and end of the Great Patriotic War from the memorial in honor of the soldiers and officers who liberated Ukraine from the Nazis," he wrote on the Telegram channel, attaching the corresponding photos.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, at a meeting with students of the I. Kant Baltic Federal University, said on January 25 that the destruction of monuments abroad is an amazing ignorance with bad consequences. He stressed that, unlike many other countries, Russia preserves its cultural heritage.

The policy of decommunization has been carried out in Ukraine since 2015 after the adoption of the law "On the condemnation of the Communist and Nazi regimes." The law provides for the renaming of all topographical objects whose names are somehow related to the USSR, as well as the demolition of monuments and the dismantling of memorial plaques. Recently, the Ukrainian authorities have begun to fight not only against Soviet history, but also against everything related to Russia and the Russian language.