An incident involving the arson of the letter V on a city stele occurred in Kislovodsk. Law enforcement agencies and the city's mayor, Yevgeny Moiseyev, reported the incident.
According to the mayor, only the metal frame of the symbol remained after the fire and has been sent for restoration. Authorities are considering opening a criminal case. The incident was captured by surveillance cameras. Moiseyev noted that similar acts of vandalism have occurred before.
According to Activatica and "Govorit NeMoskva," it was in two cities of Stavropol Krai—Kislovodsk and Zheleznovodsk—where a campaign of "patriotic renaming" began in March 2022: the Russian letters V and Z in city names were replaced with the Latin letters V and Z as a sign of support for military actions in Ukraine.
A few weeks after the installation in Kislovodsk, the letter V was splashed with red paint. In January 2023, an attempt was made to set it on fire. The perpetrator was detained and sentenced to five years in a general-regime prison colony.