A Facebook account published a video recorded in the capital of Ukraine. According to the author of the post, the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People (formerly the Arch of Friendship of Peoples) was painted in LGBT flag colors. In reality, the video was recorded in 2017, when Ukraine was hosting the Eurovision Song Contest. It was then that the arch was temporarily painted in rainbow colors and called the “Arch of Diversity”.
Until May 2022, the structure located in the center of Kyiv was called the Arch of Friendship of Peoples. Until 2022, there were also bronze statues under the arch depicting Ukrainian and Russian workers with the Order of Soviet Friendship. The statues, which were a symbol of the “union of Ukraine and Russia”, were dismantled in April 2022.
The Arch before 2022 The Arch after 2022
The debates surrounding the Arch of Friendship of Peoples, which for Ukrainians is still associated with Soviet ideology, were renewed after the start of the Russia-Ukraine war in 2022. Even before that, the issue was on the agenda several times. It must be noted that the Kyiv government even created a working group tasked with deciding the fate of the complex. In the end, the decision was made to dismantle the statue of the workers, while the arch remained in its place, and it was officially named the Arch of Freedom of the Ukrainian People on May 14, 2022.
According to an article published by BBC Ukraine in April 2024, the Kyiv City Council has also discussed the idea of completely dismantling the arch, although a final decision has not yet been made. In 2022, the mayor of Kyiv, Vitali Klitschko, also mentioned that the arch might be painted in the colors of the Ukrainian flag.
As for the video itself, it was recorded in 2017, when Ukraine hosted the Eurovision Song Contest. The arch was temporarily painted in rainbow colors and was called the “Arch of Diversity”. And, after Eurovision, the construction returned to its original appearance.
Thus, the claim that the arch was painted in LGBT flag colors is false. Moreover, the final fate of the arch, whether it will be demolished or not, or in what form it will continue existing, has not been decided yet.
