After Russia's attack on Ukraine, Ukrainian cities began to actively get rid not only of Soviet names and monuments, which they did in the prewar years, but also of names and monuments associated with Russia.

The monument to Empress Catherine II, who founded Odessa in 1794, and her companions, designed by architect Yuri Dmitrienko, was erected in 1900 and dismantled after the revolution in 1920. It was restored only in 2007.

On November 30th Odessa city council voted for dismantling and moving the monument to Catherine II and her associates (the monument to the founders of Odessa) and the monument to Suvorov. At the beginning of November, the city residents voted in favour of moving the monument.

The head of the Odessa regional military administration, Maxim Marchenko, on Thursday night thanked the residents of Odessa who had expressed their stance on the Russian imperial heritage.

According to the city council, the monuments from the centre of Odessa will be sent to an art museum after dismantling.