PREVIEW

Workers remove protective layers from the monument to 17th-century Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytskyi outside Saint Sophia Cathedral in Sofiiska Square, Kyiv, Ukraine, August 20, 2026. The statue was cleared of years of dirt and vegetation that had accumulated beneath protective structures shielding it from potential Russian attacks. Dedicated to Bohdan Khmelnytskyi, the first Hetman of the Zaporizhzhian Host, the monument was installed in 1888 and is among the oldest sculptural landmarks in Kyiv.