Restored Monument to Bulgarian Revolutionary Unveiled in Ukraine's Izmail Amid Air-Raid Sirens

Diana Dukovska, BTA correspondent Svetlana Dragneva

The restored monument to Bulgarian revolutionary and poet Hristo Botev is unveiled in the Ukrainian town of Izmail. Guests include Bulgarian Deputy Culture Minister Ashot Kazaryan; BTA Director General Kiril Valchev; Bulgaria's Consul General in Odesa Svetoslav Ivanov and the Bulgarian folk singer Ilia Lukov, Izmail, October 30, 2025 (BTA Photo/Hristo Kasabov)

Izmail, Ukraine,

30.10.2025 15:53

(BTA)

Amid air-raid sirens, the restored monument to Bulgarian poet and revolutionary Hristo Botev was officially unveiled in the Ukrainian town of Izmail on Thursday.

The event was organized by the Sveta Sofia Izmail Bulgarian community, chaired by Nikolay Ivanov, and by the Izmail State University of Humanities, headed by Rector Yaroslav Kichuk. The monument stands in front of the university building.

The event, which was part of the celebrations of the Day of the Bessarabian Bulgarians, opened to the strains of the national anthems of Ukraine and Bulgaria. A minute of silence was held for the Ukrainian soldiers who have lost their lives.

Official guests at the event included Marina Denoy, Deputy Head of the Izmail District State Administration; Bulgaria's Consul General in Odesa, Svetoslav Ivanov; Anton Kisse, Member of the Ukrainian Parliament and President of the Association of Bulgarians in Ukraine; Bulgarian Deputy Culture Minister Ashot Kazaryan; BTA Director General Kiril Valchev; and the Bulgarian folk singer Ilia Lukov.

After the official unveiling of the monument, Lukov sang an old Bulgarian folk song dedicated to the heroes Hristo Botev, Vasil Levski and Stefan Karadzha.

Representatives of the town and local authorities, of the municipal council and mayors of Bulgarian villages in Izmail District took part in the flower-laying ceremony, together with faculty members and students from the Izmail State University of Humanities.

A delegation from the northeastern Bulgarian town of Dobrich arrived for the event. The Bulgarian community in Izmail has maintained friendly relations with Dobrich for more than thirty years, and the two towns are twinned.

Performers from the Izmail Regional Centre for National Cultures, led by Georgy Chilik, presented a festive programme.

The bust of Hristo Botev in Izmail was unveiled on March 20, 1978 and is the first monument to the Bulgarian poet and revolutionary in modern-day Ukraine. The date of its unveiling marked the 100th anniversary of Bulgaria's Liberation from Ottoman rule. The bust was created by the Izmail sculptor Mihail Nedopak.

Hristo Botev (1848-1876) is closely associated with Odesa, Izmail, Bolhrad and Zadunaivka. In Izmail, Botev worked as a teacher from 1869 until the spring of 1871. Every year on January 6 and June 2, the dates of his birth and death, Bulgarian associations and organizations commemorate him with conferences and flower-laying ceremonies.

Since the resettlement of Bulgarian migrants to Bessarabia (today's southern Ukraine) in the 19th century, a portion of them later settled in Izmail on the River Danube. According to the most recent official census in Ukraine, Bulgarians in Izmail are the third-largest ethnic group, numbering nearly 8,000 people, or around 10% of the town's population.

/NZ/