Stolen Artifacts from Ukraine Russians sell in the black market
The Scythian Culture Swords, which returned to Ukraine in 2023
Oleksandr Tkachenko / Telegram
Russians trade in the black market stolen from the occupied territories artifacts. The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications has calculated more than 1.7 million subjects of the stolen Ukrainian cultural heritage.
About it reported Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications Mykola Tochitsky in an interview with Ukrinform.
« One million seven hundred thousand units of our cultural heritage were stolen in the occupied territories: from archaeological finds to museum collections that the Russian Federation appropriated, violating all possible rules of international law. successfully trade this in the black market « – emphasized tochitsky.
According to the minister, thanks to colleagues from different countries, these stolen artifacts can be returned. He said that during the trip abroad, he was often handed over to these items.
According to Tocitsky, Russian officials are involved in the abduction of valuable artifacts.
« Ukraine for the first time in February has imposed sanctions against cultural, museum and other figures of Russia. It is about 55 individuals and three legal entities, for whom we have clearly proved their involvement in theft, destruction and destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage », – the minister emphasized.
At the same time, Ukrinform correspondent did not ask the ministerand he did not tell how the ministry prevents new occupation risks and whether evacuation from threatened territories. After all, both the military leadership of the country and President of Zelensky repeatedly stated about the threat of a new offensive in Sumy region and Kharkiv region.
Also, there was no criminal responsibility for the disorganization of the evacuation of museum collections in February 2022 in the interview. This was then made possible by such a huge theft of Ukrainian values by Russia.
What preceded this?
Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications does not thinkwhich are responsible for the evacuation of museum values from threatened territories. Also the ministry It does not make lists of objects for evacuation, because according to officials of the department, this should be done by museums that store collections. The Ministry only coordinates the evacuation process.
Such information was reported by the ICSC Chairman Olga Sahaidak. IN columns for UP She said that the Ministry of Culture translates responsibility to regional military administrations and directors of museums, despite the fact that the legislation provides for another mechanism of evacuation of valuable collections, where the Ministry of Culture was the first responsible for evacuating the body.
The ministry also refused to report on the results of the evacuation.
More than a million objects of museum values remain in the museums of Zaporizhzhya, Sumy and Kharkiv region. Together with 6 other threatened areas, the number of values has more than 3 million.
