The Odesa region has become the leader in the number of monuments to Pushkin in the unoccupied territories

Activists from the civil society organization “Decolonization. Ukraine” have updated their map of Pushkin monuments that they believe should be dismantled and have identified four such monuments in the Odesa region.

According to the activists’ estimates, this makes the Odesa region the leader in Ukraine in terms of the number of such monuments. 

In the Odesa region, three of the four monuments are located directly in Odesa: a bust near City Hall, a monument near the museum, and a bust on the facade of the Opera House. Another one is in Tatarbunary.

 In addition to the Odesa region, there is one more monument to Pushkin in the unoccupied territories, in Kyiv—a bas-relief depicting him at 60 Janusz Korczak Street. 

As for the temporarily occupied territories, there are monuments to Pushkin in:

• Donetsk—four in total.
• Luhansk.
• Mariupol.
• Skadovsk.
• Henichesk.
• Kakhovka.
• Berdyansk.
• Melitopol—three of them.
• Sevastopol.
• Simferopol.
• Yalta.

In February, the Ministry of Culture of Ukraine added the monument to the poet Alexander Pushkin in the town of Tatarbunary, Odesa Oblast, to the list of sites that are not subject to inclusion in the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Ukraine. Also excluded from the register was the site “Historic Place Where Pushkin Stayed” in Tatarbunary, where the monument itself is located.

In November 2025, historicalmonumentsin the Odesa region lost their protected status, paving the way for their possible removal. The decision applies to monuments associated with the Russian Imperial and Soviet eras. At the same time, the dismantling of the monument toAlexander Pushkin in Odesa has been temporarily halted. City officials explained this by noting that the monument is located within the city’s historic center, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and is listed as being in danger.

Кирило Бойко