Ukrainian volunteer restorers Yaroslav Fedorovskyi and Leonid Mamashvili have been restoring old signs in central Kyiv during the full-scale war. They are doing this as part of the Maie Znachennia project, which Fedorovskyi first launched in Mariupol to restore historic doors.
Before 2022, the team had managed to return two doors in Mariupol and had nearly finished a third. After the invasion began, the project stopped: the building from which the third door had been removed was destroyed by a Russian missile, and the money raised for further work was transferred to hospitals for medicine.
In the second year of the war, Fedorovskyi again turned to preserving the urban environment and noticed the Kvity sign from 1956. Mamashvili backed the idea, helped find contractors to remove it, and in May 2023 the sign was taken down for restoration. It was later returned to the facade.
“These objects need to be protected precisely now, when bombs are falling on us. If we do not fight for our culture and history, what will remain of us?” Mamashvili said.
After that, the project restored three more signs in Kyiv: Kolyorove Foto, Perukarnia, and Moloko. The participants stress that although these objects date back to the Ukrainian Soviet era, they were created by Ukrainian artists and the lettering is in Ukrainian.
Over time, the work was suspended: according to Fedorovskyi, they could not secure grants for a project focused on Soviet-era signs, and private donations also declined. Still, the former participants continue to monitor the restored objects. In July 2025, after shelling in Kyiv, the letter “M” fell from the Moloko sign and shattered; it was repaired at the restaurant’s expense. In November 2025, the Kvity sign was removed without warning, but it later turned out that the building’s new owner had taken it down to renovate the facade.