UkraineWorld asked Anastasiia Cherednychenko, the Chair of the International Council Of Museums Ukraine, about the nature of Russia's cultural genocide against Ukraine, the damage inflicted on Ukrainian museums, and what can be done to take Ukrainian cultural treasures back. Here’s the summary of our conversation.
Depriving Ukraine of its cultural heritage through destruction or looting is part of Russia's genocidal policy against Ukraine.
This fact has already been recognised at the international level. For example, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) adopted a resolution "Countering the Erasure of Cultural Identity in War and Peace," which acknowledged Russia's genocidal intentions to destroy Ukrainian cultural heritage and identity.
Russia's actions to erase Ukrainian heritage and identity began in 2014, and intensified with the full-scale invasion in 2022. At the same time, the Russian Empire has been appropriating cultural heritage and absorbing resources from Ukrainian territories for centuries.
There is ample evidence that the appropriation of Ukrainian culture and history is a well-planned Russian policy. After Russian leader Putin signed a decree declaring the incorporation of occupied territories in October 2022,Russia later passed a law (2023) which incorporates museums from these territories into Russia’s collections.
This includes collections from 77 Ukrainian museums now found in the state catalog of Russia's museum fund.
However, practical actions in this area began well before the law was adopted. Starting in autumn 2022, collections from museums in occupied territories, particularly from Kherson, were illegally removed.
Even earlier, in March 2022, an inter-museum group was created, comprising 10 federal museums and educational institutions. Representatives of this group visited occupied territories, including the razed to the ground Mariupol, they stole items, and later organised exhibitions with them.
An important feature of Russia's cultural sphere is its weaponised nature.
Today, the sphere of Russian museums is managed, in part, by Sergey Naryshkin, the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service. This arrangement helps Russia to conduct cultural genocide against Ukraine.
Russia organises various events for museum workers from occupied Ukrainian territories, including seminars and international professional festivals. At these events, participants are taught how to register stolen objects and work with the state catalog of Russia's museum fund.
A telling example was the international inter-museum festival held in May 2024, which featured a dedicated section for museum workers from "new" (i.e., occupied Ukrainian) territories.
A significant concern is the participation of ICOM representatives in such events. ICOM comprises not only national committees but also international committees specialising in specific topics. For instance, one committee head and the secretary of another attended the aforementioned event.
Some Russian museums whose employees travel to occupied territories and illegally remove museum objects, openly admitting to these actions, are institutional members of ICOM. These employees can be considered war criminals, and the museums they represent are effectively institutions that participate in war crimes.
It's challenging to provide precise details about the stolen collections from all 77 affected museums. However, according to Ukraine's Ministry of Culture, approximately 1.7 million objects from Ukraine's museum heritage have fallen under the control of Russian occupation authorities
.
Specific examples illustrate the scale of the problem. The Kherson Local History Museum and its branches, known for their rich archaeological collection, as well as the Kherson Art Museum, suffered significant losses.
During the occupation, some staff members, including the director of collections, remained on-site. She now serves as an important witness to the Russian looting operations.
While the Russians attempted to portray this looting as an evacuation, the director of collections has testified otherwise. A proper evacuation would have adhered to specific legal requirements, including appropriate packaging of items and access for international observers. None of these conditions were met.
Another notable case is the illegal appropriation of collections from the Mariupol Local History Museum and its branches. Works by renowned artists such as Aivazovsky and Kuindzhi were among the stolen items. Russian sources claim that approximately two thousand objects were removed.
Moreover, the Melitopol Museum lost a historically significant collection of Scythian gold and ornaments of Hunnic and Sarmatian culture to theft.
What’s more, the Russians are not only targeting Ukrainian culture and history, but nationalities
.
Ukraine's museums house the cultural heritage of many nationalities that have coexisted peacefully in the country, including Greeks (with a significant presence in Mariupol), Bulgarians, Jews, indigenous peoples like Crimean Tatars, Karaites, Krymchaks, and others.
The Russians employ hybrid tactics to either justify or conceal their actions. Beyond misrepresenting looting as evacuation, they also relocate stolen collections between different occupied territories.
They claim, for instance, that items from the Mariupol museum were transferred to the Donetsk Regional Museum, those from Kherson museums to Crimea, and a valuable collection from the Melitopol Museum to Berdyansk.
This creates an illusion that the artifacts remain within Ukrainian territories. However, the true fate of these collections remains unknown.
Beyond looting, Russia is actively destroying Ukrainian cultural heritage through both indiscriminate and targeted shelling.
All cultural objects within Ukraine's territory are at risk.
The Office of the Prosecutor General of Ukraine reports that Russian aggression has resulted in damage or destruction to 1,062 cultural landmarks.
Targeted attacks on Ukrainian museums are seen in several cases. Notable examples include the destruction of the Hryhoriy Skovoroda Museum in Kharkiv Oblast and the Roman Shukhevych Museum in Lviv.
The war has exacerbated pre-existing challenges in Ukraine's museum sector with staffing and the loses of its people being a significant issue. Many museum professionals, including rare specialists such as restorers, have joined the Armed Forces of Ukraine.
Tragically, some museum workers have lost their lives while performing their duties. A poignant example is the attack on the Kupiansk Local History Museum in Kharkiv Oblast, which resulted in the deaths of both the museum's director and an employee.
To return the stolen objects, meticulous documentation of these crimes is crucial.
A comprehensive inventory of Ukrainian-owned items that were stolen is essential. Legal experts will then determine the appropriate process for their repatriation.
Several Ukrainian initiatives are professionally engaged in this documentation effort. In particular, ICOM Ukraine has launched a project to monitor Ukrainian cultural heritage. This pilot project focuses on the Mariupol Museum and its branches, actively tracking stolen items.
However, the situation is complicated by a lack of concrete information about the fate of these objects. There is no comprehensive data on what has been destroyed, what has survived, where items have been taken etc,.
Beyond the destruction and state-sanctioned Russian looting, an additional challenge arose when Russian soldiers entered cities: museums were left vulnerable, and it's unclear what individual soldiers may have stolen when having the opportunity to do so.
ICOM Ukraine collaborates with law enforcement agencies, particularly the Office of the Prosecutor General, providing information and monitoring the activities of Russian museums.
Statements made by Russian officials and museum directors (some of whom are institutional members of ICOM) claiming ownership of certain objects, and respectively, our history, are also considered criminal acts.
At its core, Russia is an empire that views Ukraine as its vital component. Consequently, Russian ideology and policy have long aimed to erase the concept of Ukraine as an independent state and Ukrainians as a distinct people
, particularly in the east and south of Ukraine.
The expropriation of cultural heritage serves this goal by fabricating an illusion that these artifacts belong to Russia, effectively denying Ukraine's existence. By erasing history, collective memory is also obliterated.
A striking example of this strategy is the Russian multimedia exhibition titled "Azov," inaugurated by Sergey Naryshkin.
This exhibition, which toured Moscow, St. Petersburg, and other cities, promoted the narrative that the Azov Sea had "once again become an internal sea of Russia." To support this claim, the organizers used items looted from the Mariupol Museum's collection.
Given the current challenges, Ukrainian museums require material support, particularly for evacuation procedures, proper storage of evacuated items, and maintaining suitable conditions in operational museums.
Remarkably, despite the ongoing war, museums in Ukraine continue to evolve and modernise
. This progress necessitates institutional support and specialised training for museum staff to keep pace with these developments.
Museums play a crucial role in the lives of Ukrainians, especially during these turbulent times. Even under such adverse conditions, museums continue to function, with public interest actually increasing. These institutions help their visitors process and reflect on the trauma of war.
And so, this additional function enhances the museums' significance and makes them an even more attractive target for Russian destruction efforts.
