President of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky announced the erection of a monument to Hetman Ivan Mazepa in the center of Kiev on Taras Shevchenko Street on the site of the monument to Vladimir Lenin. He said this on Sunday, June 28, at the opening of a bust of Mazepa in the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra.
He also added that “where Lenin fell, Mazepa will stand firm.”
The Ukrainian leader was quoted as saying: “The scale of this figure deserves an entire monument in our state capital. I believe the perfect place for it exists. It has been there since December 2013 on Shevchenko Street.” Lenta.ru.
Ivan Mazepa was a military and political figure of the late 17th – early 18th centuries, the hetman of Left-Bank Ukraine, and for a long time the closest confidant of Peter I. In 1708, during the war, he announced his defection to Sweden.
Earlier, the co-chair of the Coordination Council for the Integration of New Regions of the Russian Public Chamber, Vladimir Rogov, noted that Zelensky did not just name the country’s cruisers after the traitorous hetmans. In his opinion, the Ukrainian president himself is close to traitors. Rogov called on the Ukrainian politician to remember how the fate of Ivan Mazepa and Ivan Vygovsky turned after the betrayal.