The Massive Trident Destined For Kyiv's Motherland Monument

This image, of workers welding a giant Ukrainian trident, was one of several photos published by Ukraine's Suspilne News outlet on July 19.

The pictures show progress on a stainless-steel shield -- measuring 7.6 meters high and 4.5 meters wide -- that will replace the current shield of Kyiv’s Motherland Monument.

The Motherland Monument is a 102-meter-high statue commemorating Soviet victory in World War II. The steel figure looks east from the right bank of the Dnieper River in Kyiv. 

The current steel shield of the monument features the Soviet coat of arms. Ukrainian activists have long called for the removal of the communist emblem. A survey held in 2022 reported some 85 percent of Ukrainians wanted the hammer and sickle replaced with a trident -- Ukraine's official coat of arms.

Men posing in front of the Motherland Monument during its assembly in March 1981.

Construction of the steel-skinned statue began in 1979 and was completed in 1981.

The opening ceremony for the Motherland Monument on May 9, 1981. Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev can be seen (lower left) speaking during the event. 

Ukrainian workers handle a section of the trident shield that is currently being built at an undisclosed location.

Funding for the 28 million hryvna ($758,000) steel shield was raised with donations from various large Ukrainian businesses. 

The shield is due to be installed on the Motherland Monument by late August. One critic called the technically difficult and expensive project "impossible" to achieve. 

 

In a Facebook post on July 19, Ukraine's Ministry of Culture and Information Policy declared that replacing the hammer and sickle with the trident "is about freeing our culture from Soviet stigma."