 Ukraine has doubled down on an effort to erase all traces of Russian rule amid a full-scale invasion by Kremlin troops, now nearing its two-year mark, municipal workers on December 9 carefully hoisted the hulking statue of Mikola Shores, a Soviet field commander during the Russian Civil War, off its pedestal, the structure had occupied a prominent spot on a central artery named after Ukraine's national poet. Onlookers stopped to watch and photograph as a giant crane lowered the horse-riding shores. Into a flatbed truck, key of city councilman Leonid Yemets told Reuters the statue would be moved to a museum authorities in Ukraine's Black Sea port of Odessa dismantled a prominent statue of Catherine the Great late last year after a months-long campaign by activists. Thousands of streets and settlements have also been renamed in recent years as part of a de-communication campaign launched after the 2014 Maidan Revolution, which toppled a pro-Russian leader. We already have a state, we need a good leader, so that they also know our history. Is it right to do it, or is it wrong to do it, because there was such a language in Ukraine? Yes, it is right. Everything needs to be, it must be believed, that's all, but it's all the utopia. It's a great pity that a lot of people died in this terrible situation. Of course, now when Ukrainians are fighting against the idea of continuing that Bolshevik regime, it is not a place, but a symbol of the totalitarian regime in the capital of our country. For a long time, we have been waiting for the capital government to allow the Ministry of Culture. Finally, we received it, so we immediately moved to the transfer of this monument, then we give it to the city. On the asphalt of history, specifically in the totalitarian regime museum.