Ukraine asked UNESCO about the termination of cooperation with Russian museums
Ukraine asked UNESCO about the initiation of any cooperation with Russian museums.
This was announced by the Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko on the air of the national telethon, the correspondent of Ukrinform reported.
“At UNESCO, we asked our Western partners and other institutions about the introduction of any cooperation with Russian museums… Using Russian narratives that they are about great Russian culture, we also consider it a crime. Because they, in fact, want this narrative of the great so-called Russian culture as a weapon, no worse, and sometimes, unfortunately, even more effective than their missiles. That is why we are promoting the termination of any cooperation, providing the Russians with the opportunity to influence the processes at UNESCO,” said the head of the ICIP.
According to him, many institutions supported it at the beginning of a full-scale war. Currently, there are certain attempts by the Russians to “rewind” this process, but the vast majority of civilized countries support the idea of ”abolishing Russian culture” (“abolition of Russian culture”) and especially its “prominent” representatives,” Tkachenko said.
He also reminded that the ICRC appealed to UNESCO to record the Russians’ plan to remove Ukrainian cultural values from Crimea.
“Perhaps they feel something, including the return of Ukraine to Crimea, but we must take into account all legally available measures … and emphasize that this is definitely a fact of a war crime, because we know that during the occupation of Crimea illegal actions and regarding UNESCO objects in Bakhchisarai, Chersonese, and all this, accordingly, should be “fallen” on the reparations of the Russians. But it is also important for us to involve international organizations in order to prevent further illegal traffic and possible museum values from Crimea in the world”, – said the Minister of Culture and Information Policy.
According to him, Crimea has about 30 reserves and museums, more than 1 million 200 thousand exhibits.
“But the information we received from our General Staff that they (the Russian invaders – ed.) are starting or planning to evacuate Ukrainian valuables, we could not confirm as another step of the occupying power regarding objects that are part of Ukrainian cultural heritage, world cultural heritage. heritage In addition, they should be treated with respect… to prevent any illegal actions regarding the Ukrainian cultural heritage in Crimea,” Tkachenko stressed.
As reported by Ukrinform, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, in the temporarily occupied Crimea, the occupying authorities issued an order specifying the procedure for the “evacuation” of museums. Also, internal (within the region) and external (on the territory of Russia) “evacuation” plans have been approved for local institutions. It was established that the exhibits with the greatest material value are subject to priority evacuation.
The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine called on UNESCO and all international partners to respond to the decision of the so-called authorities of the temporarily occupied Crimea to begin the “evacuation” of museum collections.