Cabinet backs Zelensky’s idea to replace Lenin monument with Mazepa statute

Bust of Mazepa at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Photo: Office of the President of Ukraine

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has backed a Culture Ministry proposal to erect a monument to Hetman Ivan Mazepa in Kyiv on the site of the dismantled Vladimir Lenin monument on Taras Shevchenko Boulevard. The government confirmed the decision on September 24, 2026.

The Ukrainian government approved the placement of the new monument in the center of the capital. Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture Tetyana Berezhna said that Ivan Mazepa is one of the key figures in Ukrainian history.

“It is important to us that the future monument be created as a result of an open competition, with the involvement of the professional community and in compliance with all necessary procedures,” Berezhna said.

The Culture Ministry, together with the State Agency of Ukraine for Arts and Arts Education and the Kyiv City State Administration, will organize an open competition for the best design. The Culture Ministry itself will commission the design and production of the monument.

The initiative to erect a monument to Mazepa on Shevchenko Boulevard was announced by President Volodymyr Zelensky on June 28, 2026, during celebrations marking the 30th anniversary of Ukraine’s Constitution at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, when he described the location as “ideal” for the monument. The initiative was subsequently included in a presidential decree issued on August 21.

At the time, Zelensky also said that portraying Mazepa as a traitor was a “lie” that, he argued, Russia had propagated for centuries. He described the hetman as an “outstanding statesman and military leader, patron of the arts, and head of the Cossack state.”

Earlier, the UOJ reported that Zelensky marked Constitution Day at the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra.

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