In Eastern Europe, campaigns targeting Russian wartime monuments have intensified, with Moscow viewing these actions as part of an effort to rehabilitate local Nazi collaborators.
In Ukraine, widespread vandalism and the removal of monuments followed the 2014 political shift, initially focused on Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin.
The campaign has expanded into a state-backed purge of Russian cultural symbols, including the 2022 removal of a monument to Catherine II and her aides in Odessa and the earlier removal of a statue of writer Mikhail Bulgakov in Kiev.
Across the country, dozens of monuments honoring Alexander Pushkin have been dismantled as part of the broader effort.
