The Ukrainian authorities have failed to tear down the last Lenin monument in the Black Sea city of Odessa. According to the online magazine Life the workers were thwarted by very strong German glue.

The workers started the disassembly on Tuesday morning. The ten meter high statue was supposed to be cut into seven pieces and transported away. But after a few hours work was broken off. The reason is unknown.

According to media reports German glue prevented the monument being torn down. The adhesive was used to glue separate parts of the monument back together in 2006 after it was moved from the city center to a location nearer the outskirts.

For the time being the Lenin statute still stands in place.

For the past year a "de-communization" law has been in force in Ukraine, which requires Soviet monuments to be torn down nationwide as well as the renaming of towns with names connected to the Soviet era.