Kalmykova backs popular memorials at Maidan, St. Michael's Monastery
Minister of Veterans Affairs Natalia Kalmykova believes that the spontaneous folk memorials to those who died for Ukraine on Independence Square and near the wall of the St. Michael's Monastery in Kyiv should remain where they are, but become less temporary.
"Exclusively in discussion with the families. It is necessary to design and show them how everything will be, and to conduct a dialogue. This is a very complicated process," Kalmykova said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, answering the question of how she sees the development of the situation with these folk memorials.
When asked whether it should be in the same places, just in a different form, or within some future large memorial, the minister stated that: "these spontaneous memorials, they are born from people. I think they should be there."
"Therefore, the question is more about how to make them less temporary. But this is exactly what people with cultural, historical, and architectural education should think about, and this should definitely be discussed with families and fellow citizens," she added.
Regarding the work of the working group on developing proposals for the concept of the Ukrainian Heroes Memorial, Kalmykova reported that there is a large discussion with architects there.
"Because this is a sensitive topic that raises many different approaches, and it is important to reach a conceptual agreement that will unite the professional environment and meet the needs of society. Frankly speaking, six months is a very short period of time for the formation of a holistic concept for a memorial of such scale and significance. Active work is currently underway, but it is difficult to predict the timing of the completion of the work, since the main thing here is not speed, but the meanings that we lay down," the minister added.
As reported, the Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy Mykyta Poturayev considers it necessary to transform the national memorial to those who died for Ukraine near the wall of the St. Michael's Monastery in Kyiv, and also insists on the need to organize and establish spatial boundaries at the national memorial to those who died for Ukraine on Independence Square.
Former Head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance Anton Drobovych believes that the situation with the spontaneous national memorials to those who died for Ukraine on Independence Square and near the wall of the St. Michael's Monastery in Kyiv can be resolved by offering citizens a new, better location.
