The Mission condemns the looting by the occupiers of the Tauric Chersonese Museum-Reserve and other museum, historical and cultural institutions of Ukraine and demands the immediate return of historical artifacts belonging to the Ukrainian state and its people!
According to available information, the occupiers took gold from the Byzantine period, as well as ancient bone, clay and other materials from the Chersonesos Tavriya Museum-Reserve, allegedly for an exhibition in Veliky Novgorod. Illegal archaeological excavations are also continuing on the territory of the reserve.
This week, it also became known that exhibits from the Stone Tomb Museum, which is located on the temporarily uncontrolled territory of Zaporizhzhia region, were moved to Chersonesos. The so-called “exhibition” presents more than 120 archaeological artifacts from the territory of the Zaporizhzhia reserve, which the occupiers stole and transported to the territory of the occupied peninsula.
The occupiers can declare about the exhibition as much as they want, but it is illegal to move cultural property from the occupied territory. Moreover, we understand that the relevant actions are a deliberate theft before the inevitable counteroffensive of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and the liberation of the relevant territories. The occupiers realize that the respective territories will soon be free, and therefore they are trying to take all valuables away under various pretexts.
We appeal to the law enforcement agencies and the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to investigate this and other similar crimes of the aggressor country. We call on the international community to respond and continue political and diplomatic pressure on Russia.
Only the de-occupation of Crimea will ensure the preservation of the cultural and historical heritage of the Ukrainian state and its citizens.