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Russia Looted 1.7 Million Ukrainian Artifacts From Occupied Territories and Is Selling Them on the Black Market

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Maryna_kulakova
Maryna Kulakova
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Russia Looted 1.7 Million Ukrainian Artifacts From Occupied Territories and Is Selling Them on the Black Market
The upper part of the burial stele is displayed at the 'Treasures of Crimea: Return' exhibition at the Treasury of the National Museum of the History of Ukraine, Kyiv. (Source: Getty Images)

Russia has stolen more than 1.7 million items of Ukrainian cultural heritage from temporarily occupied territories and is trafficking many of them on the black market. However, through cooperation with international partners, Ukraine is gradually recovering these stolen artifacts.

This was revealed by Ukraine’s Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications, Mykola Tkachytskyi, in an interview with Ukrinform on April 11.

According to the minister, Russia has been deliberately and systematically destroying Ukraine’s cultural heritage.

“In the occupied territories, over 1.7 million pieces of Ukrainian cultural heritage have been looted—from archaeological finds to museum collections—seized by the Russian Federation in violation of all international legal norms,” Tkachytskyi said.

“In earlier times, when Russia stole our name and our history, they moved exhibits to the Hermitage or Moscow museums. Today, they are openly selling them on the black market,” he added.

Thanks to close cooperation with authorities in other countries, Ukraine has begun recovering some of these cultural assets.

“During official visits abroad—by both the President [Zelenskyy] and myself—foreign law enforcement agencies have repeatedly handed over confiscated artifacts that were stolen from occupied Ukrainian territory and smuggled abroad for sale,” Tkachytskyi explained.

He also noted that Russian officials are directly involved in the looting of Ukrainian cultural property. In February 2024, Ukraine imposed sanctions for the first time on Russian cultural, museum, and academic figures involved in the theft and destruction of Ukrainian heritage. Sanctions targeted 55 individuals and 3 legal entities proven to have participated in the looting and erasure of Ukraine’s cultural legacy.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) recently adopted a resolution titled “Countering the Erasure of Cultural Identity in War and Peace.” The resolution recognizes Russia’s erasure of Ukrainian cultural identity as both a weapon of war and a form of genocidal policy.

According to Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, between February 24, 2022, and October 25, 2024, Russian forces have damaged or destroyed 2,109 cultural heritage sites. The most severe destruction has occurred in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk regions.

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