  It is well known that there are no static non-Abelian monopole solutions in
pure Yang-Mills theory on Minkowski space R^{3,1}. We show that such solutions
exist in SU(N) gauge theory on the spaces R^2\times S^2 and R^1\times S^1\times
S^2 with Minkowski signature (-+++). In the temporal gauge they are solutions
of pure Yang-Mills theory on T^1\times S^2, where T^1 is R^1 or S^1. Namely,
imposing SO(3)-invariance and some reality conditions, we consistently reduce
the Yang-Mills model on the above spaces to a non-Abelian analog of the \phi^4
kink model whose static solutions give SU(N) monopole (-antimonopole)
configurations on the space R^{1,1}\times S^2 via the above-mentioned
correspondence. These solutions can also be considered as instanton
configurations of Yang-Mills theory in 2+1 dimensions. The kink model on
R^1\times S^1 admits also periodic sphaleron-type solutions describing chains
of n kink-antikink pairs spaced around the circle S^1 with arbitrary n>0. They
correspond to chains of n static monopole-antimonopole pairs on the space
R^1\times S^1\times S^2 which can also be interpreted as instanton
configurations in 2+1 dimensional pure Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature
(thermal time circle). We also describe similar solutions in Euclidean SU(N)
gauge theory on S^1\times S^3 interpreted as chains of n
instanton-antiinstanton pairs.
