Such a thesis is spread by Russian propaganda, both in the Kremlin media and in social networks. In particular, such a message appears from time to time in pro-Kremlin anonymous telegram channels. The authors of such reports claim that Ukrainians are ignorant vandals who forget their history and are ready to destroy all monuments and memorials associated with the Soviet Union or Russia, solely at the direction of the authorities. This time the message appeared in the information space against the backdrop of news about the dismantling of the monument to Catherine II in Odesa.

Prior to this, such messages were spread, for example, when monuments to the Russian poet Oleksandr Pushkin were dismantled in turn in Ukrainian cities. The propagandists have only one argument: Ukrainians are poorly educated, they are overshadowed by the ideas of "nazism" and are ready to destroy everything that contradicts their ideology, in particular, very valuable sights, like the statue of Catherine II. The Russians are very concerned about the destruction of "values" in Ukraine, so even the Russian Investigative Committee expressed its readiness to "investigate" the cases of destruction. However, the Russians claiming the value of the long-term monument to Catherine are silent about the fact that this monument is actually a replica restored in 2007, and not an old bronze sculpture. According to Beyond the news, the monument of 1900 erected in honor of the alleged 100th anniversary of the city was dismantled in 1920: four sculptures of the empress's associates were kept in the local history museum, and only the head remained from the statue of the Russian queen.

The monument was reproduced under the name "Monument to the founders of the city" in 2007. And after the dismantling of the monument, they do not plan to destroy it. According to the representative of the Odesa Regional Military Administration Serhii Bratchuk, four figures of the so-called composition "To the Founders of Odesa" will return to the museum. However, it is the Russians who are engaged in vandalism in the temporarily occupied territory and, in particular, for ideological reasons. For example, according to Beyond the News, in Mariupol they dismantled the monument to the Victims of the Holodomor of 1932-1933 and political repressions, destroyed the Art Museum named after Arkhyp Kuyindzhi and even a mural dedicated to the girl Milana who survived Russian shelling in 2015. In addition, the Russians do not hide the fact that they took everything valuable from the Kherson Art Museum, and in Melitopol the invaders first robbed the local history museum, and then reopened it, while it is not known what happened to Scythian gold, the most valuable exhibit.