Russian officials and museums steal Ukrainian artifacts in Crimea, Ukraine’s intel names key figures

The Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defense reported the information.

Intelligence officers have gathered information on 14 Russian exhibition organizers and propaganda event coordinators involved in the theft of Ukrainian cultural valuables in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

The illegal export of 164 archaeological artifacts from the occupied Crimea has been confirmed. They were found during excavations of the ancient cities of Nymphaeum and Pantikapaion.

The Main Intelligence Directorate notes that since 2022, Russian museums have been systematically conducting propaganda activities in the occupied territories, organizing exhibitions, lectures, and educational programs. Their goal is to integrate Ukrainian museums into the Russian cultural space and erase Ukrainian identity.

Among the individuals involved is Irina Zhukova, the director of the All-Russian Historical and Ethnographic Museum, who organized the exhibition Unity Through the Ages in 2024 in the temporarily occupied Luhansk region to promote the "historical connection between Donbas and Russia."

Also included in the list is Alexander Shkolnik, the director of the Museum of the Great Patriotic War, where in 2023, training sessions were held for museum workers from occupied Donetsk on promoting Russian history among museum visitors.

The list of heritage thieves also includes the head of Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergey Naryshkin, who leads the History of the Fatherland fund and the Russian Historical Society, which has 7 branches in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

• Last spring, the Kherson Art Museum identified 103 paintings stolen by Russian occupation forces in 2022. The total number of illegally smuggled artworks exceeds 10, 000.