"Lenin is always alive, Lenin is always with you," sings a Soviet song. So he is. In Semenivka village, in the Chernihivska Oblast, a Lenin monument that had been toppled on February 26, 2014, has been restored.
According to the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, local communists decided to restore and return it.
"The Lenin monument should certainly be dismantled," says the institute on its website. "Any other stance, decision, and action is a mockery of the memory of Ukrainian victims of the totalitarian regime."
This is, indeed, an interesting analysis by Edward W. Walker for Business Insider of the recent uptick in violence in eastern Ukraine:
And speaking of the upsurge in violence in eastern Ukraine, here is the latest map of the situation there, issued by the Ukrainian Defense Ministry (click image to enlarge):
According to this Hromadske TV report, separtists in the self-proclaimed Donetsk People's Republic are reportedly going to hold a "referendum" on joining Russia:
Here are some more details from RFE/RL's news desk about Ukrainian fatalities in the east of the country:
Ukrainian officials say four soldiers have been killed and 14 wounded in recent fighting in eastern Ukraine.
Military spokesman Oleksandr Motuzyanyk said on August 20 that the casualties occurred in the Luhansk region, part of which is controlled by Russian-backed separatists.
The deaths are part of an upsurge in fighting that began last week in neighboring Donetsk and caused the deaths of 10 people -- both Ukrainian soldiers and separatists -- on August 16 in the Donetsk region.
Meanwhile, an adviser to the Ukrainian Defense Ministry said on August 20 that four Ukrainian soldiers had been released by the rebels.
Vasiliy Budik wrote on Facebook that the release occurred after lengthy negotiations with rebel representatives that included UN officials.
Iryna Herashchenko, a Ukrainian representative in the Trilateral Contact Group, said there are still some 167 Ukrainian soldiers and civilians being held against their will by separatist forces in the Luhansk and Donetsk regions.
The UN says more than 6,400 people have been killed in fighting in eastern Ukraine since April 2014.
(AFP, Interfax)