The former People's Friendship Arch in Kyiv is proposed to be turned into a LGBT symbol or a rainbow over the water

The former Arch of Friendship of Peoples / Photo from open sources

The head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance (UINP) Anton Drobovych believes that the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People (formerly the Arch of Friendship of Peoples, note) does not necessarily need to be demolished if it is no longer read as a Soviet symbol.

He said this in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Anton Drobovych spoke about three possible, in his opinion, scenarios for the development of events around the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People. One of them is dismantling, the second is to leave the Arch, but then the citizens themselves will still forcibly dismantle it, «as they did with Lenin.»

«The third option is to leave the arch and, as in 2017, make a rainbow out of it as a symbol of LGBT (abbreviation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people, — note) or simply a symbol of a rainbow over water,» he noted.

According to the head of the UINP, the rainbow will truly redefine this object, creating a new context and discussion around it.

«Because the crack that currently exists in the performance of Volodymyr Kuznetsov and the group is a good and strong statement, but it has not become true. She did not change the public space in such a way that it could be read, no one in a private conversation calls her the «Arch of the crack of nations.» And the rainbow works! This immediately became clear when the «Right Sector» spoke, which means that it is no longer read as a Soviet symbol,» explained the head of the UINP.

At the same time, he added that you can try to redefine the Arch «functionally», making, for example, «some kind of water slide or something else».

It will be recalled that the Ministry of Culture deprived the former Arch of Friendship of Peoples of the status of a monument of history in Kyiv. The decision could lead to the dismantling of the monument, which represents Soviet ideologies and threatens national security.