#Ukraine’s very tragic and complex WWII history does not fit neatly into any of the myths which major power have built.

10 mountain climbers placed a wreath of red poppies on the statue of Mother Motherland in Kyiv for Remembrance Day, on May 8.

The sculpture was built in 1981 on the territory of the WWII History Museum to commemorate the victory of the Soviet Union in what was called the “Great Patriotic War.”

Today, it wears this crown of poppies, the symbol of remembrance, to remember all the victims in the war, and to recall that the war didn’t start in 1941 when Germany invaded the USSR, but was predated by the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, following which the USSR itself invaded a number of territories, having agreed with Nazi Germany to carve up Europe.

The director of the Institute of National Memory Volodymyr Viatrovych says that the communist hammer and sickle will be removed from the statue till the end of the year.

Last year, the wreath was placed on the statue by famous roofer Mustang Wanted.