The trident on the shield of the Motherland in Kyiv was installed at the beginning of August

A total of 67% of Ukrainians approve of the removal of the Soviet coat of arms from the shield of Kyiv’s iconic “Motherland” monument, and its replacement with a Ukrainian Tryzub or trident state symbol, a new poll has found.

The results of the poll, conducted by the Ilko Kucheriv Democratic Initiatives foundation and the Razumkov Center think tank, were released on Aug. 23.

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Some 16% of respondents said they disapproved of the change, while the rest either didn’t answer this question or had a neutral attitude.

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The highest share of positive attitudes among the public was expressed in the western regions of Ukraine, as well as among young and middle-aged Ukrainians.

Slightly fewer such positive assessments were recorded in the southern (42%) and eastern (57%) parts of the country, as well as among the elderly (58%). However, the pollsters point out that positive assessments still prevail even in these regions and age groups.

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Meanwhile, 70% of respondents agree that substituting the Soviet emblem with the trident on the Motherland monument is a landmark event that symbolizes Ukraine’s struggle for freedom and its break from the Soviet past. However, about 17% of Ukrainians do not share this opinion.

The survey was conducted on Aug. 9-15. A total of 2,019 people were interviewed in person across Ukraine, except for in the occupied territories of Crimea, Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhya, Kherson, and those areas where active hostilities are taking place.

The poll’s margin of statistical error does not exceed 2.3%.

The Soviet coat of arms, including the hammer and sickle symbol, was removed from the monument’s shield on Aug. 1.

Momentum to remove the Soviet symbols from the monument grew after a vote was conducted on the Diia platform (a mobile app and web portal for e-governance operating in Ukraine since 2020) in the summer of 2022. The overwhelming majority of voters wanted to replace the Soviet coat of arms with the Tryzub.

On May 3, 2023, Ukraine’s parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, passed a law permitting the removal of Soviet and imperial cultural monuments. Subsequently, on July 13, the State Inspection of Architecture and Urban Planning issued a permit to substitute the coat of arms on the monument’s shield with a Ukrainian trident.

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The Culture Ministry confirmed on July 26 that the process of preparing to remove the Soviet coat of arms had commenced. All funding for the endeavor came from patrons, with the overall cost estimated at UAH 28 million (over $761,000).

The trident state symbol was placed on the shield of Kyiv’s “Motherland” monument on the morning of Aug. 6.

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Read the original article on The New Voice of Ukraine