Odesa City Hall urged to remove the heart anchor from the city center

A petition to dismantle the "Anchor-heart" monument as a symbol created by the propagandist of the aggressor country, Artem Lebedev, was registered on the Socially Active Citizen platform in Odesa.

The author of the petition, Daria Karpova, called on the Odesa City Council to decide to dismantle the monument.

The petition states that Artemiy Lebedev is a Russian citizen who has publicly and repeatedly supported Russia's full-scale aggression against Ukraine, justified the occupation of Ukrainian territories and spoke disparagingly of our country. His activities are part of Russian propaganda. Therefore, in the context of the war with Russia, the preservation of a symbol created by a propagandist of a terrorist country in the public space of the city is a disrespect for the memory of the dead and the military who defend Odesa.

Earlier, Odesa Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov refused to promote the new brand identity, which was approved at a session of the Odesa Regional Council. He stated that Odesa has its own symbol - the heart anchor.

Before that, the city council said that they would not abandon the tourist logo of Odesa, the "anchor-heart" created by the studio of the scandalous Russian designer Artem Lebedev.

At the time, Ivan Liptuga, Director of the Department of Culture, International Cooperation and European Integration of the Odesa City Council, who is a co-owner of the rights to the brand, explained that it was unprofitable to create a new identity. A lot of time, effort, and money was invested in promoting the symbol. It is worth noting that after Lebedev called on Russia to "seize Odesa as soon as possible," his name was painted over a plaque near the sculpture of the Anchor Heart tourist logo.

The issue arose after the head of the State Agency for Tourism Development, Mariana Oleskiv, said that the city council should resolve the issue of using the "anchor-heart" sculpture by Artemiy Lebedev, who was notified of suspicion by the Security Service of Ukraine, as a tourist logo.

Кирило Бойко