PREVIEW

A worker on an aerial platform uses a pressure washer to clean the monument to Ukrainian writer Lesia Ukrainka in the Pecherskyi district, Kyiv, Ukraine, August 11, 2026. The protective shell shielding the monument from potential Russian bombardment was removed, and the statue and pedestal were cleaned of accumulated dust, atmospheric pollution and surface layers. The work was carried out free of charge by specialists from a private company as part of the social initiative “Weeks of Improvement of Historical Monuments of Kyiv”. Lesia Ukrainka, born Larysa Kosach (1871 - 1913), was one of Ukraine’s foremost writers, best known for her poems and plays. She was also an active political, civil, and women’s rights activist.