Moscow's invasion in 2022 has prompted Ukrainian authorities to step up their "de-colonisation" measures. Since 2014, when the Kremlin annexed the Crimean peninsula and backed separatists in the east, Kyiv has been working to remove Soviet monuments and symbols. But new laws passed in the second year of Russia's full-scale invasion aim to take these measures even further, with a noticeable impact on historic sites like Poltava. "We really need to be brave and not be silent, not turn a blind eye to the difficult, and perhaps unpleasant, pages of our history", says museum guide Ludmyla Chendryk. “And an unpleasant page is, first of all, the lack of unity", she adds. IMAGES AND SOUNDBITES