Ukraine's Main Intelligence Directorate has documented 178 artifacts stolen by Russian authorities from occupied territories and published the data in the "Stolen Heritage" section of the War&Sanctions portal.
The documented items include:
• Over 140 artifacts removed during unauthorized archaeological excavations in occupied Crimea at the Southern Suburb of Chersonesos Taurica, the Kadykovske settlement (a Roman camp), and the Byzantine Church of John the Baptist.
• 37 exhibits transported from the National Historical-Archaeological Museum "Kam'yana Mohyla" in now-occupied southern Zaporizhzhia Oblast to the Chersonesos Taurica museum in 2023. Moscow presented the transfer as a "temporary exhibition" titled "The Spiritual World of Ancestors in the Petroglyphs of Kam'yana Mohyla."
"By appropriating Ukrainian culture and history, Russia is attempting to erase Ukrainian national identity and legitimize its aggression and occupation," intelligence officials stated.
Russia seizes UNESCO-listed archaeological site
The theft targets one of Ukraine's most significant archaeological sites. Kam'yana Mohyla is a 12-meter sandstone formation covering three hectares in the Molochna River floodplain near Melitopol, Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
The site formed 14-12 million years ago from the ancient Sarmatian Sea bottom and contains 87 grottoes and caves.
Sixty-five of these feature thousands of petroglyphs spanning from the Late Paleolithic period—24,000-20,000 BC—through the Middle Ages. Ukraine granted the site national reserve status in 2008. UNESCO included it on its Tentative List of World Heritage Sites in 2006.
Russian authorities illegally annexed the reserve in February 2023 as a branch of what they call the Chersonesos Tauric museum-reserve.
Stolen artifacts reach black market as scale exceeds 1.7 million items
The scale extends far beyond the documented 178 items. Ukraine's Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications reported in April that Russians have stolen over 1.7 million items of Ukrainian cultural heritage from occupied territories since the full-scale invasion began in 2022.
Minister Mykola Tochytskyi told Ukrinform that Russian officials now sell stolen artifacts on the black market.
"If in ancient times, when Russians stole our name and our history, they transported exhibits to the Hermitage or Moscow museums, now they successfully trade them on the black market," Tochytskyi stated.
Europe recognizes erasure of Ukrainian culture as Russia's genocidal act
Ukraine has recovered some stolen items through international cooperation. Foreign authorities have transferred confiscated artifacts to Ukrainian officials during state visits after intercepting items exported for sale.
Ukraine imposed sanctions in February against 55 individuals and three legal entities connected to the theft and destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage, available on the War&Sanctions portal.
In June, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe adopted a resolution confirming that the erasure of Ukrainian cultural identity constitutes an instrument of Russia's war against Ukraine and an element of genocide policy.
The assembly also condemned Russia's systematic state policy of Russification implemented since 2014 in occupied territories, including denial of Ukrainian cultural identity, language, literature, and history.