Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych has laid flowers at a monument to great Ukrainian poet Taras Shevchenko in Kyiv.

Participants in the flower laying ceremony also included government representatives.

Around 2,000 people gathered on the square opposite the monument, holding state flags and posters with the inscriptions entitled “Glory to Great Kobzar!” “Yanukovych Uniting Ukraine,” and “Shevchenko's Memory Living in Centuries.”

On March 9, Yanukovych is planning to visit the town of Kaniv in Cherkasy region to familiarize himself with the pace of the reconstruction of Taras Shevchenko Literary and Memorial Museum, visit the grave of the Great Kobzar and meet with the laureates of the Shevchenko prize.

Shevchenko (March 9, 1814 - March 10, 1861) was a Ukrainian poet, writer, painter, graphic artist, public figure, and member of the Cyril and Methodius Brotherhood.