The local council’s decision on Thursday to remove the statue of a turul bird from the Mukachevo (Munkács) Castle in western Ukraine is “shocking” and “outrageous”, Árpád János Potápi, the state secretary in charge of policies for Hungarian communities abroad at the prime minister’s office, said in a statement. The turul statue was erected in the castle in 1896 and re-installed in 2008 after the castle’s renovation. Potapi called it “regrettable” that “in the midst a war, the most important thing for Mukachevo’s leaders is to dismantle a primary symbol of the local Hungarian community and Transcarpathian Hungarians”. Countries that abide by European values should respect and preserve historic monuments, he said, adding this was a part of minority policy. News portal mukachevo.net said the Ukrainian coat-of-arms would replace the statue.