Authorities in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv have decided to take down ten Soviet-era monuments, including eight statues of Vladimir Lenin, a municipal official said on Thursday, according to RIA Novosti.

However, Serhiy Rudik said that a monument to Lenin on Kyiv`s main street, Khreshchatyk, would not be taken down as it had national significance and the decision to remove it could only be made by the government.

He also said that the removal of the monuments would be carried out within the framework of President Viktor Yushchenko`s orders concerning the issue of the Stalin-era famine which devastated Ukraine in 1932-1933.

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However, Rudik added that the monuments would not be destroyed but would be, "possibly put together somewhere in the same place where they can be visited."

RIA Novosti