The Supreme Administrative Court of Ukraine made a decision in the case of Odessa resident Nadezhda Sodol and the Union of Public Organizations “Association of Cossack Societies “Sich” against the Odessa City Council.
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About it writes the Odessa website “Timer”.
The “Cossacks” demanded to cancel the decisions of the City Council on the restoration of the monument to the Founders of the City on Catherine Square and the transfer of the monument to the sailors of the battleship “Prince Potemkin-Tavrichesky”, as well as to recognize as illegal the decisions of the Primorsky District Court of Odessa and the Odessa Administrative Court of Appeal in favor of the mayor’s office.
Having considered the cassation appeal, the Supreme Administrative Court doubted the purity of the procedure for moving the Potemkin monument to Primorskaya Street and the objectivity of the first two instances.
“The defendant did not provide any evidence of the impossibility of preserving the monument “Potemkin - Descendants” on Catherine Square... In addition, in accordance with the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the Ukrainian SSR dated July 21, 1965 No. 711 “On approval of the list of monuments of art, history and archeology”, which was in force at the time If a dispute arises, the Potemkin monument has republican status, and in order to take any actions with a monument of national significance, the Odessa City Council must apply exclusively to the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine. These circumstances were not the subject of investigation either when the case was considered by the court of first instance, or when the case was considered by the appellate court,” the decision says.
As a result, the Supreme Administrative Court partially satisfied the plaintiffs’ demands, overturned the decisions of the first two instances and returned the case for further consideration to the Primorsky Court.
Let us note that the plaintiffs were not guided at all by considerations of historical justice and not by the desire to return the monument to the revolutionary sailors to its place. According to the new laws, this monument itself is also subject to decommunization, that is, demolition. And after the demolition of the monument to Catherine, approved by the court, space will be freed up for a future monument to someone from the pantheon of new “heroes of Ukraine.”