A monument to Hetman Ivan Mazepa will be erected in Kyiv

The Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine has endorsed the Ministry of Culture’s initiative to erect a monument to Hetman Ivan Mazepa in downtown Kyiv. The monument is planned to be placed on Taras Shevchenko Boulevard, at the site where a monument to Vladimir Lenin previously stood. According to , the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture reports that this project is being implemented in accordance with a decree by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dated August 21, 2026.

Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture Tetyana Berezhnaya emphasized the significance of this figure for Ukrainian statehood. According to her, Ivan Mazepa was a key statesman who actively promoted the development of culture and education and consistently defended the country’s political sovereignty.

To select the monument’s design, an open competition for the best conceptual design will be organized by the relevant agencies in collaboration with the Kyiv City State Administration. Funding for the construction of the monument and the landscaping of the surrounding area will come from the Kyiv city budget; however, the law also allows for the use of additional funding sources.

As a reminder, we previously reported that a ceremonial unveiling of a bust of Ukrainian Hetman Ivan Mazepa took place on the grounds of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called this event an important step toward restoring historical justice.

At the same time, it is worth noting that Ivan Mazepa remains a controversial historical figure, since in 1708, during the events of the Great Northern War between the Russian Empire and the Kingdom of Sweden, he, as hetman of the Zaporozhian Host, betrayed Russian Tsar Peter I by defecting to the side of Swedish King Charles XII. As a result of Mazepa’s decision, many churches on the territory of present-day Ukraine were ravaged by the Swedes. For these actions, Hetman Ivan Mazepa was excommunicated by the Russian Orthodox Church, and this excommunication remains in effect to this day.