Russia Steals 164 Ancient Ukrainian Artifacts From Crimea With Key Looters Identified

Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) unveiled the names of 14 Russian museum officials accused of facilitating the theft of Ukrainian cultural treasures from Russian-occupied territories, HUR reported on March 24.

According to the agency, at least 164 archaeological artifacts have been illegally removed from Crimea, taken from the excavation sites of the ancient cities of Nymphaion and Panticapaeum.

Since 2022, Russian museums have engaged in a coordinated propaganda campaign in occupied regions of Ukraine. Exhibitions, lectures, and educational programs are being used to justify the occupation and integrate Ukrainian museums into the Russian cultural sphere, erasing Ukrainian identity in the process.

Among those are:

• Irina Zhukova, director of the “All-Russian Museum of History and Ethnography,” in 2024 organized an exhibition in Russian-occupied Luhansk titled “Unity Through the Ages”, aimed at promoting Moscow’s claims to the region.

• Alexander Shkolnik, director of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, whose institution in 2023 hosted training for museum workers from occupied Donetsk on how to push Russian historical narratives to visitors.

The list of “heritage looters” also includes Sergey Naryshkin, head of Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service. Under his leadership, the History of the Fatherland Foundation and the Russian Historical Society—which operates seven branches in occupied Ukrainian territories—have played a central role in Russia’s efforts to rewrite history and erase Ukraine’s cultural legacy.

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War in Ukraine

Russia’s Systematic Cultural Genocide, Destroying Ukrainian Identity

Jan 30, 2025 14:56

Ukraine’s War&Sanctions portal has documented 996 stolen cultural objects and identified 260 individuals complicit in the plundering of Ukraine’s cultural heritage, the distortion of history, and the systematic effort to erase Ukrainian identity.

Earlier, reports emerged that in one of Ukraine’s occupied cities, teenagers have formed a secret book club to read and discuss Ukrainian poetry and prose that Russia is trying to erase, The Guardian reported.

The article tells the story of 17-year-old Mariika [name changed] and her friends who have to draw the curtains and make sure no one is lurking near the door before gathering to discuss books in a private apartment.

“In the town where Mariika lives, the occupiers have removed and destroyed the Ukrainian books from several libraries – nearly 200,000 works of politics, history, and literature lost in one town alone,” the article reads.