Ukraine Forms Working Group to Decide the Fate of the Friendship of Peoples Arch in Kyiv

Wed, 06 May 2026 20:46:00 +0200

The Ukrainian Cabinet of Ministers has tasked the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, along with the Kyiv City State Administration, to determine the future use of the People's Friendship Arch, a historical monument in Kyiv. This directive, issued on February 4, 2022, calls for the creation of a working group including the Ministry of Culture, Kyiv City authorities, and the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, among other relevant government bodies. The group will study the monument's future use and report its findings back to the Cabinet. The monument, established in 1982 in celebration of Kyiv’s 1500th anniversary and the 60th anniversary of the USSR, features sculptures of a Russian and Ukrainian worker holding a ribbon with the Order of Friendship of Peoples, connected by a 35-meter high arch symbolizing Soviet unity. In recent years, the arch has been the focus of artistic interventions, such as the 2018 installation 'Crack in Friendship,' which highlighted Ukrainian po