Zelensky says where Mazepa monument will be erected in Kyiv

Zelensky with Dumenko and Stefanchuk beside a bust of Mazepa. Photo: Stefanchuk’s Facebook page

On June 28, 2026, during celebrations marking Ukraine’s Constitution Day near the walls of the Dormition Cathedral of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, President Volodymyr Zelensky announced that a monument to Hetman Ivan Mazepa would appear in the capital and named the site where it is planned to be installed.

According to the head of state, the “ideal place” for the monument has “existed since December 2013” – on Shevchenko Boulevard.

“Where Lenin fell, Mazepa will stand firmly,” Zelensky said.

He also announced that a bust of Mazepa, whom he called the “patron of the Lavra,” would be installed on the grounds of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra itself. According to him, by doing so the authorities are “correcting a historical injustice.”

Zelensky also repeated the claim that calling Mazepa a traitor is a “lie” which, he said, Russia has spread for centuries. He described the hetman as “an outstanding statesman and military leader, a patron of the arts, and the head of the Cossack state.”

The statement about the monument was made in the same speech in which the President announced a law on the “Ukrainian National Pantheon,” a new state award called the “Order of Europe,” and preparations for the 1,000th anniversary of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

As the UOJ previously reported, Zelensky marked Constitution Day at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

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