In November 2023, information circulated on the Internet that instead of the dismantled Kyiv monument to the poet, a monument with the presidents of the United States and Ukraine called “Partners Forever” would be erected. We decided to check whether such news is true.

Some Russian news outlets wrote about the monument with Biden and Zelensky shaking hands, which is supposedly supposed to be erected on the site of the previously demolished monument to Pushkin. resources. Social media users also shared news about the plans of the Kyiv authorities to erect such a monument (“VKontakte", X) and blog platforms (LiveJournal, "Zen"). Many popular Telegram channels also published this information: “Solovyov"(246,000 views at the time of writing this analysis), "Sheikh Tamir"(139,000), "Ivan Utenkov"(106,000), Zergulio (101,000), "Ostashko! Important"(88,000), etc. Attached to most posts on this topic are documents about the installation of the “Partners Forever” monument in Kyiv at 40 Pobedy Avenue, allegedly prepared on November 5, 2023. They include scans of drawings and estimates. The installation of the monument, according to the documents, will be carried out by the Metinvest Holding company, and the cost of the project will be 10 million hryvnia (about 25 million rubles at the exchange rate at the time of writing this analysis).

On November 10, 2023, the government of Ukraine adopted solution, allowing the dismantling of several monuments to Russian and Soviet figures. A few days later, the monument to Pushkin in the Kiev park named after. Ivan Bagryany (until recently - Pushkin Park) really was demolished.

Back in February 2023, in Kyiv, on the Alley of Courage, a commemorative plaque with the name of the American President - Joe Biden was personally present at its opening. However, “Verified” was unable to find in official sources or authoritative Ukrainian media any reports of intentions to also erect a monument in honor of Zelensky’s partnership with his colleague on the site of the monument to Pushkin.

The documents accompanying many posts with this news present a drawing of the project of the proposed monument and tables with calculations of the cost of work. They also include the customer (Ukrainian Cultural Foundation) and project executor (“Metinvest Holding"). “Verified” was unable to find any information on the official websites of these organizations about the upcoming installation of “Partners Forever.” There is no information about the tender for a similar project from the Ukrainian Cultural Foundation and on the official website with information about government procurement of Ukraine Prozorro (and it should appear there, since the fund is a government agency subordinate to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy). There are no other tenders for the creation of the monument “Partners forever"or those that are supposed to be installed by address, indicated in the documents under the posts.

Note that it is unlikely that the address “Pobedy Avenue, 40” could appear in the official Ukrainian document prepared on November 5, 2023, since nine months earlier this avenue renamed in Beresteysky. At the address Beresteysky Avenue, 40, as evidenced by the Ukrainian government procurement website, the installation of any monuments is also didn't order.

Fact-checking project "Vox Ukraine"asked for comment to representatives of Metinvest Holding. They replied that the company was not involved in the implementation of the project of such a monument, and the distributed documents with the organization’s seal and the signature of its financial director were forged. At the same time, both the seal and the signature match with real ones - as our colleagues suggest, they were probably taken from genuine documents that were in the public domain, and then superimposed on a fake in a photo editor.

The earliest publication of this news and accompanying documents that “Verified” was able to find was made in the Telegram channel “Shaman Rahu» November 13, 2023 at 17:16 Moscow time. The post states that the information was allegedly received from a subscriber. This channel has more than once become the primary source of false reports about Ukraine, including presenting certain materials as sent by caring readers. For example, earlier “Verified” denied the news that appeared there that the Orthodox Church of Ukraine is creating a new, “more youthful” one. clothes for priests or that one of the Lviv clinics offers fertilization biomaterial of Azovstal defenders.

Thus, “Verified” was unable to find any evidence that the project for the “Partners Forever” monument to Biden and Zelensky was ever actually developed. The organization that is supposedly supposed to carry out the installation of the monument denies its involvement in the project. The primary source of the news and the distributed documents, which also contained factual inaccuracies, was the pro-Russian Telegram channel, which Verified had previously repeatedly caught spreading disinformation.

Cover photo: Office of the President of Ukraine