Dmytro Lubinets, Ukraine’s Ombudsman, called on the UN to respond to Russia’s destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage, including the Ancient City of Tauric Chersonese. It is Crimea’s unique historical and archaeological monument included in the UNESCO World Heritage List.
Lubinets recalls that Russia unleashed a campaign of large-scale destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage back in 2014, but the international community have long failed to react to this.
Now the invaders have proceeded with illegal construction work on the Chersonese ruins, creating a so-called “historical and archaeological park”, shut down the archaeological remains with viewing platforms, moved and rebuilt some excavated objects in other locations, and erected an amphitheater on the site of an ancient citadel.
The Ombudsman draws attention to the fact that many archaeological finds were withdrawn from the site and to Russian museums.
Lubinets emphasized that Russia should bear responsibility for the destruction of cultural heritage in accordance with international law and return all artifacts stolen from museums located in the temporarily occupied territories. He called to oblige the aggressor state to return all stolen artifacts from the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.
t should be recalled that in the temporarily occupied Crimea, the Russians completely destroyed the ancient Chersonese and erected a new building in its place.
Anna Melnykova, "Palace of Labor (palats praci), architector I. Pretro, 1916", shot with analog Canon camera, 35 mm Fuji film in March 2022.
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