The criminal system of looting by Russia of the cultural heritage of Ukraine in the occupied territories

The Russian-Ukrainian war revealed, in addition to the problems of the world security system, another global challenge – the low effectiveness of the system of protection of cultural values ​​during an armed conflict.

Archaeologist Evelina Kravchenko provides an analysis of the main trends of the aggressor country’s treatment of cultural heritage in the occupied territories.

The statements available for analysis from the “media” controlled by the aggressor, as the development of events shows, are only the tip of the iceberg of the criminal scheme of stealing cultural heritage by the occupying country.

The main regulatory act that regulates the handling of cultural property during an armed conflict is the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict of 1954 with two protocols. All these documents have been ratified by Ukraine.

The Russian Federation ratified the convention only with its first protocol. However, as can be seen from the situation with cultural heritage throughout the period of hostilities since 2014, the aggressor systematically neglects the requirements of this international treaty.

There are also two more international documents that regulate the handling of cultural heritage in military conflicts. These are the 1970 Convention on Measures to Prohibit and Prevent the Illicit Import, Export and Transfer of Ownership of Cultural Property and the 1972 Convention on the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage.

Since 2014, Russia has criminally “alienated” movable and immovable objects of cultural heritage of Ukraine in several ways. The occupiers illegally “issue” fake “orders and regulations”, according to which Ukrainian museums, nature reserves, archives and libraries are criminally declared as “Russian state institutions” with corresponding illegal “funding, management and subordination”.

Since 2014, the aggressor in the occupied Crimea has been carrying out criminal “passportization of archeological monuments” according to the “laws of Russia”. Ukrainian monuments that have the status of national importance are criminally “identified” and “taken into account” as supposedly of “federal importance”. In the same criminal “order”, the collections of movable objects of cultural heritage, which were kept in museums as of 2014, are “taken into account”.

This criminal “practice” was applied by the aggressor to the museums of the occupied Crimea since 2014. The museums of the occupied part of Donetsk and Luhansk regions were “not subject” to these criminal actions, and the aggressor criminally declared their fake “subordination” to the illegal so-called “authority” of the terrorist “republics”. Later, in 2022, the Donetsk puppets of the aggressor began to criminally “transfer to the federal museum system” at the request of the Kremlin, the relevant artifacts they seized in 2014, but “reluctantly”.

As can be seen from the facts of the criminal “transfer of works of art” from “Crimean museums” under the control of the aggressor for “temporary exhibition” in the occupied East of Ukraine, after that activity in the corresponding criminal “cooperation” intensified. At the same time, the aggressor started the criminal processes of moving museum collections of the occupied parts of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions to the occupied Crimea. All this allows us to assume a more complex mechanism than it seemed to us before, the criminal “alienation” by the aggressor country of cultural values ​​belonging to Ukraine in the territories occupied by the Russian Federation.

We will first describe the first option, which is visible and presented by Russian propaganda for both “domestic” and “foreign consumers”. Actually, it is a mechanism of criminal seizure by the aggressor state of cultural values ​​from the occupied territories through the so-called “state mechanisms”.

The illegal mechanism is used by the aggressor through the Ministry of Culture of Russia, which criminally “takes into account” objects of cultural heritage, as happened in the occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea, or through the Ministry of Culture of the aggressor and at the same time the Russian Orthodox Church, as is happening in occupied Sevastopol. The illegal role of this particular church in Sevastopol is due to the location in this city of one of the largest and most valuable national reserves of Ukraine – Chersonesus Tavriyskyi, because the aggressor is criminally using it as a fake “flagship of historical propaganda”.

“It is from this place,” as the new Russian “historians-propagandists” manipulatively claim, that “modern Russia began,” and allegedly with the baptism of Prince Volodymyr of Kyiv, “the baptism of all Russia began” and “the formation of Russian Orthodoxy,” which modern Putin’s ” theologians” claim to be “the only orthodox trend” in Christianity.

The ignorance of “Russian society” regarding the real history allows the propaganda of the aggressor to a certain extent to control this human mass.

The priests of the Moscow Patriarchate preach their “new teaching” not only in Russia, but also in other countries through “daughter churches”, such as the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, the Serbian Orthodox Church, the Orthodox Churches of Georgia, etc. There is no doubt that such a powerful fake propaganda movement of the aggressor “needs its own center”. It is he who, in the criminal opinion of Russian propagandists, should become the so-called “New Chersonesus” – a joint illegal “project” of the Moscow Patriarchate and the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, which is illegally “implemented” by the means of the Ministry of Defense of the aggressor country.

The Ministry of Defense of the aggressor in this criminal project acts as the “disposer of funds”, actually organizing “construction and other works” for the creation of this “center”. The “project” is illegally financed by the “My Story” fund, which operates under the “Patriarchal Soviet of Culture” of the Russian Federation.

As of now, the direct result of this criminal activity is the destruction, by means of illegal earthworks, of a part of the monument of national significance of the settlement of Chersonesus Tavriyskyi, which is part of the world cultural heritage site “Khersones Tavriyskyi and its Choir”.

The aggressor criminally “planned the construction of a new museum complex” on the territory of the buffer zone of Chersonese, where the remains of an early medieval suburb had already been discovered by previous works. For the past year and a half, illegal so-called “archaeological excavations” have been taking place there, but in fact – illegal earthworks, which “cleansed” the entire area “set aside for development” of archaeological layers and complexes by destroying them.

However, now “suddenly” it became clear that this area is flooded with groundwater to such an extent that it has actually turned into a pond. Most likely, it is precisely these circumstances that prevent the structures of the aggressor from starting the illegal “large-scale construction” planned there already last year.

Illegal construction in Chersonese is not the only fact of violation of Ukrainian and international legislation by the aggressor country in the occupied territories. The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation criminally organizes “earthworks” in a number of other areas of occupied Sevastopol in the immediate vicinity of protected lands and even on protected areas.

All these illegal works of the aggressor take place for the criminal creation and modernization of the military infrastructure of the occupiers in Sevastopol. Such processes and consequences occurred as a result of the illegal construction of the Tavrida highway. The number of destroyed, partially damaged and negligently “excavated” archaeological monuments as a result of its illegal construction, in particular, as a result of extremely short deadlines for carrying out illegal “archaeological works” and their not only criminal but also unqualified “executors”, is measured in thousands.

It is interesting that back in 2021, apparently at the stage of preparations for a large-scale criminal invasion of mainland Ukraine, the illegal “cultural administration” of the occupiers in Sevastopol received a criminal “order” from the Kremlin on “preparation for the evacuation of Sevastopol museums.”

The occupiers criminally planned to “evacuate” several of Sevastopol’s largest museums: “Tavrii Chersones”, “Sevastopol Art Museum named after Kroshytsky”, “Museum of Heroic Defense and Liberation of Sevastopol”, which includes the Panorama of the Defense of Sevastopol and the Diorama on Sapun Mountain.

Also, the occupiers were “worried about the fate” of the “Military-historical museum of the Black Sea Fleet”, as well as the so-called “Military-historical museum of the fortifications of the Black Sea Fleet”, which was illegally created during the occupation period. This whimsical structure was illegally created by the occupiers from the captured museum complexes in the city of the Naval Museum Complex – the Museum of Submarines in Balaklava and the Mykhailiv Ravelin, where the collection of items from the Crimean (Eastern) War was exhibited before the occupation.

Initially, the “evacuation plan” provided for the “removal of museum collections” to the village of Orlyny in occupied Sevastopol itself, primarily with regard to paintings, and to “separate squares” within the city itself, but later this “plan” was for some reason “suddenly” abandoned.

As of now, packing material has already been delivered to these structures under the control of the occupiers, the museum collections are “packaged and prepared for shipment”, but there is no information about the exact place where the exhibits are planned to be illegally taken. It should be assumed that the occupiers may plan to illegally “evacuate” the Sevastopol museums by sea, but the occupiers have all kinds of problems with such logistics.

A somewhat different situation is observed in the occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Similar active preparation for “evacuation” has not yet been observed there, at least at the level of the criminal “orders and orders” of the Ministry of Culture of the Russian Federation, although the Ukrainian media reported on “secret preparation”.

In addition, objects of cultural heritage stolen from the territories occupied in 2022 – Melitopol, Mariupol, Kherson, etc. – are being illegally transported to occupied Simferopol.

Issues of “money laundering” for the “restoration of cultural heritage monuments” are also taken care of by the criminal occupying “authorities” at the “local level”, engaging “experts and structures” for these processes at their own discretion and taste.

It is characteristic that recently there has been a tendency to conduct illegal “expert work” on archaeological heritage sites in occupied Sevastopol with the involvement of “specialists and organizations” specifically from Simferopol. The reason for this situation is not yet clearly understood, because previously these issues were related to “Sevastopol experts” under the control of the aggressor, who had “work experience” in Chersonese, where at least pre-occupation documentation on all archaeological research in this region had to be kept.

According to the author of the article, the situation is determined by the fact that “external experts” are even more “conniving” for a fake “positive conclusion” on massive illegal constructions.

So, the first mechanism of the criminal theft of cultural heritage by the aggressor occurs through the illegal “authorities” of the occupiers, which since 2014 illegally “recorded”, “re-registered” as allegedly “theirs” and criminally “incorporated” into the “federal management system” Ukrainian museums , nature reserves, monuments of archaeology, architecture, history. The illegal preparation for the “evacuation” of the largest Sevastopol “museums” took place in the same way since 2021.

The second mechanism of criminal theft of cultural heritage could be traced indirectly in the first years after the occupation of Crimea on global Internet auctions, where many archaeological objects, characteristic of Crimean archeology, appeared at that time. But subsequently, Crimean items from e-bay auctions disappeared and did not appear publicly in the previous context.

The next manifestation of this criminal mechanism was the “lightning” robbery by the aggressor of the Kherson Art Museum in 2022 during the new active phase of the war.

Actually, before that it was more difficult to compare the facts of the criminal removal of paintings from museums into the system, and to add to it the morbid “interest” of individual collaborators in the prospects of the illegal “evacuation” of the “Sevastopol Art Gallery”, as well as their “activity” that manifested itself in this regard right after receiving the criminal “evacuation preparation order” back in 2021, long before the first “cotton” in occupied Crimea.

Now all these facts, as well as the processes of looting of Ukrainian museums in the newly occupied territories and their transportation to the occupied Crimea, where they often took primarily exhibition, attractive things, represent not just random removal and robbery, but a completely organized criminal process, which is probably the most centralized and takes place “outside” the local structures of the criminal occupation “authority”.

After all, no criminal “orders” of the Ministry of Culture of the aggressor about the “evacuation” of the territories occupied in 2022 to the occupied Crimea have not been discovered, at least we do not know anything about them now. It seems that the disappearance of Crimean things from Internet auctions is also connected with the creation of a certain organized criminal system, when such things did not go to auctions, but directly to specific people, who illegally “decided” their further fate.

And now, the looting of museums by the occupiers is evidence of the existence of a certain organized group that received objects of movable cultural heritage of Ukraine at their “disposal” outside of Ukrainian and international law, and at the same time – “circumventing” fake “federal legislation”.

In other words, these things will fill the global black market and criminally enrich certain people by millions of dollars, including cash. It should be noted that the higher authorities of totalitarian Russia cannot fail to know about this method of criminal “alienation” of the cultural heritage of Ukraine by its puppets, therefore, this criminal system was created with the direct assistance of the Kremlin and, most likely, is something like “payment” for its actions mercenary crimes.

The “exception” in the form of the Sevastopol museums only confirms the rule, and Putin’s personal “guardianship” over them explains the mentioned “premature evacuation”. In the same context, we will also mention the senseless fake “joining” of the “Stone Grave” reserve in the Zaporizhzhya region, captured by the invaders, to the “Khersonesky reserve” in occupied Sevastopol.

No historian, archaeologist or culturologist will be able to provide a conscious explanation for such a “combination”. After all, the sights on which the respective nature reserves of Ukraine are based – the ancient and medieval city of Chersonese Tavriyskyi and the site “Stone Tomb” – belong to completely different social groups, have nothing in common either in history, archeology or architecture.

The latter does not exist on the Stone Tomb at all, because it is represented by a natural accumulation of stone blocks of geological origin. The importance of the Stone Tomb for cultural heritage is due to the images that were carved by man on the stones in different historical eras, which determines the sacred status of this place in the past.

And it is by this single factor of the “sacred place” that the Stone Tomb is “combined” with Chersonesus in its Putin-like, fake meaning, not as a historical monument, but as the alleged “cradle of Russian Orthodoxy.”

Let’s imagine how sick must be the worldview and “belief” of a person who unites in a single ideological canvas all stages of the religious worldview of mankind – from the Stone Age to the Christian currents of the early modern era and the “sacralization” of May 9.

But let’s get back to things that are completely rational.

What mechanisms do we have to prevent the sale and circulation of illegally “alienated” things? First of all, the same Hague Convention.

According to the mechanism created by international legal acts, museums that have lost their assets must submit a corresponding statement to the police, and this is a mandatory and immediate condition for starting a search for a missing item as a result of a robbery of a museum or other organization that preserves cultural heritage. After that, the mechanism for providing information about the missing thing (objectID) is activated, and Interpol or other international special agencies deal with the search for things.

Voluntary, according to international law, the return of cultural values ​​stolen to the aggressor country from mainland Ukraine and from the occupied Crimea is actually problematic, at least until the time of systemic changes in the management and political system of the Russian Federation and is not predicted under the conditions of its modern criminal regime.

After all, the Russian Federation, as an aggressor state, does not comply with any international agreements and system documents, especially if it is “not beneficial” to it.

Therefore, for now, it is not even the introduction of changes to the existing international treaties developed for the post-war world of the middle of the 20th century, but the development of a mechanism for international search and exchange of information, and possibly the creation of a new international body that would be engaged in the search and return of stolen cultural heritage as a result international crimes and part of the activities of transnational organized crime controlled by the Kremlin.

Such functions can be assumed either by the International Criminal Court or by a special international tribunal regarding Russian aggression against Ukraine, under the conditions of its creation.

There are already 635 suspects in the main case regarding Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

This is reported by the Prosecutor General’s Office.

Among the 635 suspects are representatives of the military and political leadership of the Russian Federation: ministers, deputies, officials, heads of law enforcement agencies, warmongers and Kremlin propagandists.

In total, Ukrainian law enforcement officers registered 62,480 crimes of aggression and war crimes. Of these, 60,734 – related to violations of the laws and customs of war, 67 – planning, preparation or initiation and waging of an aggressive war, 40 – propaganda of war, etc.

In addition, 17,369 crimes against national security were registered: 10,434 – regarding encroachment on the territorial integrity and inviolability of Ukraine, 1,913 – treason, 3,905 – collaborative activities, 383 – aiding the aggressor state, 62 – sabotage, etc.

Point strikes on bases where Russian military personnel are located make the occupiers go crazy with paranoia. The enemy is strengthening the repressive machine in the hope that if it deports or detains as much of the local population as possible, the attacks will stop.

This was reported by the Center of National Resistance.

According to the report, in the Kakhov district of the Kherson region, the occupiers conducted a raid on the place of residence in order to check gadgets. The invaders are trying to find evidence of the transfer of information to relatives.

In addition, in the Luhansk region, the Russians blocked the exit and entry of the village of Tatarivka and detained dozens of local residents on suspicion of working for the Armed Forces.

Canada’s ambassador to Ukraine, Larisa Galadza, said that Russia’s actions in the context of a full-scale war against Ukraine can be considered genocide of the Ukrainian people.

“I believe that even the words of Russia can be qualified as genocide. There is no need to look for them. Putin has absolutely clearly stated that Ukraine and Ukrainians do not have the right to exist. That is, if you ask my personal opinion, yes, unequivocally,” said Galadza.

According to the diplomat, punishment for the crime of genocide for Russia should be awarded within the framework of the legal system – it is about prison terms and reparations.

“They violated international law. They violated the UN Charter and violated human rights. That’s why we need the world and Ukrainian criminal justice systems to hold Russia accountable, the Russians accountable: the people who made the decisions about it, the people who gave the orders. Those, who committed atrocities – to go through them all from the very top and down, and then again,” she emphasized.

The Canadian ambassador also emphasized that she does not see any signs of Russia’s readiness for negotiations with Ukraine.

“Putin recently said that he is not going to give up attacks and war even during the Christmas holidays. He is trying to convince his friends in the world that Ukraine does not want peace. It is hard to believe, but there are still such people in the world, such countries who think that it is Ukraine that is dragging out this war. Yes, you are right, this is part of Russian disinformation, and I think that Ukraine and its partners are collectively doing everything possible to fight this narrative,” Galadza added.

A 6-year-old boy from the Kharkiv region came under fire in the yard of his home

The police exhumed the body of a child who died as a result of the military aggression of the occupiers in the Kharkiv region.

This was reported by the press service of law enforcement officers.

According to the police, a 6-year-old resident of the city of Izyum came under fire in the yard of his house and received non-life-threatening injuries.

According to the parents, the child died on March 22. The boy was buried on the territory of the homestead, and on March 28, the employees of the funeral parlor reburied him in the cemetery.

On January 5, employees of the Izyum district police department, under the procedural guidance of the prosecutor’s office, inspected the scene and recovered the boy’s body. He was sent for a forensic medical examination to determine the cause of death.