The Russian invasion of Ukraine, now in its eighth month, is being accompanied by the destruction and pillaging of historic websites and treasures on an industrial scale, Ukrainian authorities say.

In an interview with The Related Press, Ukraine’s tradition minister alleged that Russian troopers helped themselves to artifacts in virtually 40 Ukrainian museums. The looting and destruction of cultural websites has triggered losses estimated within the a whole bunch of tens of millions of euros ({dollars}), the minister, Oleksandr Tkachenko, added.

“The angle of Russians towards Ukrainian tradition heritage is a struggle crime,” he mentioned.

For the second, Ukraine’s authorities and its Western backers supplying weapons are principally targeted on defeating Russia on the battlefield. But when and when peace returns, the preservation of Ukrainian collections of artwork, historical past and tradition additionally shall be important, so survivors of the struggle can start the following struggle: rebuilding their lives.

“These are museums, historic buildings, church buildings. All the things that was constructed and created by generations of Ukrainians,” Ukraine’s first girl, Olena Zelenska, mentioned in September when she visited a Ukrainian museum in New York. “It is a struggle in opposition to our identification.”

Employees on the Museum of Native Historical past in Melitopol first tried hiding the Hun diadem and a whole bunch of different treasures when Russian troops stormed the southern metropolis. However after weeks of repeated searches, Russian troopers lastly found the constructing’s secret basement the place employees had squirrelled away the museum’s most treasured objects — together with the Hun diadem, in keeping with a museum employee.

The employee, who spoke to the AP on situation of anonymity, fearing Russian punishment for even discussing the occasions, mentioned the Ukrainians do not know the place Russian troops took the haul, which included the tiara and a few 1,700 different artifacts.

Dug up from a burial chamber in 1948, the crown is one in every of just some Hun crowns worldwide. The museum employee mentioned different treasures that disappeared with Russian troopers embody 198 items of two,400-year-old gold from the period of the Scythians, nomads who migrated from Central Asia to southern Russia and Ukraine and based an empire in Crimea.

“These are historic finds. These are artistic endeavors. They’re priceless,” mentioned Oleksandr Symonenko, chief researcher at Ukraine’s Institute of Archaeology. “If tradition disappears, it’s an irreparable catastrophe.”

Russia’s Tradition Ministry didn’t reply to questions concerning the Melitopol assortment.

Russian forces additionally looted museums as they laid waste to the Black Sea port of Mariupol, in keeping with Ukrainian officers who have been pushed from that the southern metropolis, which was relentlessly pounded by Russian bombardment. It fell below Moscow’s full management solely in Might when Ukrainian defenders who clung to the town’s steelworks lastly surrendered.

Mariupol’s exiled metropolis council mentioned Russian forces pilfered greater than 2,000 gadgets from the town’s museums. Among the many most treasured gadgets have been historic non secular icons, a singular handwritten Torah scroll, a 200-year-old bible and greater than 200 medals, the council mentioned.

Additionally looted have been artwork works by painters Arkhip Kuindzhi, who was born in Mariupol, and Crimea-born Ivan Aivazovsky, each famed for his or her seascapes, the exiled councillors mentioned. They mentioned Russian troops carted off their stolen bounty to the Russian-occupied Donetsk area of japanese Ukraine.

The invasion has additionally wrought in depth injury and destruction to Ukraine’s cultural patrimony. The U.N.’s cultural company is holding a tally of web sites being struck by missiles, bombs and shelling. With the struggle now in its eighth month, the company says it has verified injury to 199 websites in 12 areas.

They embody 84 church buildings and different non secular websites, 37 buildings of historic significance, 37 buildings for cultural actions, 18 monuments, 13 museums and 10 libraries, UNESCO says.

Ukrainian authorities tallies are even greater, with authorities saying their depend of destroyed and broken non secular buildings alone is as much as at the very least 270.

Whereas invasion forces hunted for treasures to steal, Ukrainian museum employees did what they might to maintain them out of Russian palms. Tens of 1000’s of things have been evacuated away from the entrance traces and combat-struck areas.

In Kyiv, the director of the Museum of Historic Treasures of Ukraine lived within the constructing, guarding its artifacts, in the course of the invasion’s first weeks when Russian forces sought, unsuccessfully, to encircle the capital.

“We have been afraid of the Russian occupiers, as a result of they destroy every part that may be recognized as Ukrainian,” recalled the director, Natalia Panchenko.

Fearing Russian troops would storm the town, she sought to confuse them by taking down the plaque on the museum’s entrance. She additionally dismantled displays, rigorously packing away artifacts into containers for evacuation.

Sooner or later, she hopes, they will return into their rightful place. For now, the museum is simply displaying copies.

“These items have been fragile, they survived a whole bunch of years,” she mentioned. “We couldn’t stand the thought they could possibly be misplaced.”

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AP journalist John Leicester in Paris contributed. Efrem Lykatsky contributed from Kyiv.

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Comply with AP’s protection of the struggle in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine