Decommunization in Odesa led to physical confrontation

Decommunization in Odesa continues with the help of activists. In the Peresypskyi district, the demolition of a memorial plaque turned into a two-day confrontation. Read about this and other news on the fight against corruption in Intent's traditional digest.

Focus of the week - decommunization in Odesa

• On April 9, 2015, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a package of laws on decommunization.
• The monument to the October Socialist Revolution in Kyiv was one of the first monuments to be demolished in Ukraine. The demolition took place in accordance with the decision of the Kyiv City Council in September 1991.
• The monument to Lenin in Odesa, which stood on Kulykove Pole, was dismantled and moved to Savytskyi Park in 2006, from where it was finally dismantled in May 2016.
• As of December 2014, 504 monuments to Lenin have been toppled in Ukraine since the beginning of the year.
• On July 27, 2023, the Law of Ukraine "On Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Russian Imperial Policy in Ukraine and Decolonization of Place Names" came into force. In addition to the dismantling of monuments, plaques, and memorial plaques, the renaming of streets, alleys, and city squares was added.
• On November 11, it became known that the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine had removed the monuments to poet Alexander Pushkin and Prince Vorontsov in Odesa from the State Register of Immovable Monuments of Cultural Heritage of National Significance.
• The Odesa City Council had 6 months to comply with the law, i.e., until January 27, 2024. After that, Mayor Gennadiy Trukhanov had three more months to rename the streets by his own decree. This work was not done in full. Therefore, after this period, the issue was transferred to the jurisdiction of the Odesa Regional Military Administration.
• On July 26, it became known that the head of the OMA, Oleh Kiper, signed his order to rename a number of streets, lanes and other place names in Odesa and the region. Here is the link
• Along with the renaming of the streets, the head of the regional administration then signed an order to dismantle monuments that contain symbols of Russian imperial policy. The list includes 19 Odesa monuments, including a monument to Pushkin near the City Council, Babel, Vysotsky, Marinesko, Posmitny, and models of the Order of Lenin on 10 April Square.
• On the night of September 7, 2024, during a curfew, the monument's image of Lenin was smashed and the Soviet star removed. This act of decommunization was then organized by Vladyslav Balinsky and Demian Hanul, who was killed in the center of Odesa on March 14, 2025.
• In order to protect the Pushkin monument, in October 2024, cultural figures sent a letter to UNESCO, and citizens organized two pickets, one near the OVA building and the other near Pushkin himself. Both times, their number did not exceed 10 people. On November 22, the response became known.
• Here is the link
• On Saturday, May 17, activists tried to remove a memorial plaque to the heroes of the USSR NKVD border guards in Odesa on the street of the same name. This attempt was prevented by an aggressive local resident, whom the activists stopped with a gas canister.

Photo: Suspilne/Vadym Pozdnyakov

• A day later, the activists returned, but this time the dismantling process turned into a fight. It ended with a concussion for one of the activists and the theft of a cell phone from another.
• The press service of the Main Directorate of the National Police in Odesa region reported that two criminal proceedings had been opened. In addition, law enforcement officers drew up an administrative report against the woman who damaged the sign.
• For several days in a row, the page of the NGO Decolonization. Ukraine posted posts about broken and dismantled boards and signs in Odesa for several days in a row. Among them: a bas-relief to the Russian poet Alexander Pushkin on Deribasovskaya Street; signs and two plaques in honor of Soviet lieutenant Pyotr Schmidt; a plaque to the Chekist spy Mykola Heft, and so on.
• The same week, the telegram channel of the organization "Decolonization. Ukraine" organization's telegram channel posted posts about the removed plaque on the bust of Marshal Malynovskyi, as well as several mentions of the Pushkin monument on Prymorskyi Boulevard.

Anti-Corruption Front

Natalia Munika. Photo: Antikor

On May 19, the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption reported that it had found falsehoods worth 15.1 million hryvnias in the declaration of Natalia Munika, head of the tax audit department of the Southern Interregional Department of the State Tax Service for Large Taxpayers.

The National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption conducted a full audit of the declaration of Andriy Babenko, a member of the Odesa Regional Council and founder of the Samson security agency, and found a number of violations and false statements. In particular, Babenko indicated more than UAH 17 million in income, but could not confirm where the money came from. He was not officially engaged in entrepreneurial activity, so he could not have earned such amounts. In total, the audit revealed false information worth more than UAH 28 million.

In the declaration of Oleksandra Smyrna, a former employee of Odesa Regional State Administration, inconsistencies totaling UAH 23 million were found. The woman faces criminal liability, and she has already resigned and moved abroad.

Ігор Льов