Beatles Monument in Donetsk

The Beatles monument in Donetsk is a group of four roughly two-metre figures by Kharkiv sculptor Volodymyr Antipov. They are plastic, painted to look like bronze. The group stood at the entrance of the Liverpool café from 2006 until September 2018, when it was removed and later shown inside the Donetsk Philharmonic.

Four Beatles outside the Liverpool café

The group went up in 2006 at the entrance to the Liverpool, a student fast-food café in Donetsk. Russian and Ukrainian Wikipedia both describe it as the first Beatles monument in the CIS, three years before Yekaterinburg's Beatles silhouettes opened in Russia. Behind the figures, the wall was covered in a mosaic of the British flag, and speakers played Beatles songs next to them.

The exact street address is less clear than it should be. One English guide gives vulytsia Artema 131-a, a Donetsk listings site says Lenin Avenue 131, and Wikimedia Commons files the café under Bohdana Khmelnytskoho Avenue in the Voroshylovskyi district. Geotagged photos from 2010 and 2011 all put it in the same small area, so the map pin marks that spot, not an address.

Not bronze: plastic figures by Volodymyr Antipov

The figures look like bronze but aren't. Antipov made them from plastic and painted them. Each is about two metres tall, and the band is shown mid-concert. According to Wikipedia, Antipov went through the Beatles' filmed performances to get the likenesses right.

He mixed eras, though. Paul, George and Ringo wear the clothes and haircuts of 1963 and 1964. Lennon has glasses and a 1967 to 1968 haircut. He stands with one arm thrown forward and his guitar slung behind his back, a pose Wikipedia links to his Elvis impression in the "Hello, Goodbye" promo film. Ringo sits leaning to one side. Look closely at the instruments and there are mistakes too: McCartney's four-string bass has six tuning pegs, and Lennon's guitar has none.

Removal in 2018 and the move to the Philharmonic

In early September 2018 the figures disappeared from the café entrance. Ukrainian outlets, among them NV on 5 September 2018, reported that the monument had been dismantled in occupied Donetsk. The Donetsk Philharmonic gave a different account. It said it had taken the group away for restoration and would use it as the centre of a Beatles photo zone in its building.

The restored figures went on show on the ground floor of the Philharmonic for its "Beatlemania" programme, presented on 25 October 2018. The Philharmonic said they would stay until New Year and then go back to their old spot. We found no later report confirming that they went back, or that they are still in the Philharmonic. Wikidata lists the Philharmonic as the location.

Status today

Donetsk is internationally recognised as part of Ukraine and is occupied by Russia. The last sourced position of the group is the Philharmonic in late 2018. Until a newer source turns up, treat any claim about where the figures stand now as unverified. For Beatles monuments you can check more easily, see the full memorials list and the map.