Kiev, September 27, 2016
Vandals have desecrated the monument to the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Great Prince Vladimir in Kiev. The sculpture and relief images were damaged by red paint and the area near the pedestal is saturated with it, reports the Pravlife.org portal with reference to 112 Ukraina TV channel.
Notice of the offense was recorded in the criminal registry, the Kiev police speaker Oksana Blishchik informed journalists.
“The operational investigative group has already been to the scene of the crime. Presumably red paint was poured from a glass container onto the monument,” Blishchik related.
The criminal investigation has begun (part no. 1 of article no. 296 of the Ukrainian Penal Code: “Hooliganism”). The article imposes a punishment ranging from a fine to five years of imprisonment.
Officers are currently searching for the culprits.
The monument to Vladimir the Great is the oldest sculptural monument in Kiev, erected in 1853.
The bronze 4.4 meter (c. 14.5 feet) statue of St. Vladimir, the Baptizer of Russia, who is depicted in a cloak with a large cross in his right hand and the Grand Prince’s cap in his left hand, dominates on a pedestal which is sixteen meters (c. 52.5 feet) tall with the silhouette of an octagonal chapel in a pseudo-Byzantine style on a square stylobate. The brick pedestal and stylobate are lined with cast-iron slabs. The total height of the monument is 20.4 meters (about 67 feet).
