Exporting Ukrainian cultural monuments from Crimea to the Russian Federation, as well as performing archaeological excavations on Crimean territory by the Russian Federation are illegal – Sergiy Petukhov

“There have been recorded a number of cases of exportation of Ukrainian cultural monuments from Crimea to Russia. They are illegal, as well as any archaeological excavations performed by Russia on Crimean territory. For this reason we have assembled our Coordination council, invited government representatives, who are responsible for these issues, in order to develop a strategy and an action plan”, - emphasized, while opening the Coordination council meeting, Deputy Minister of Justice of Ukraine for European Integration Sergiy Petukhov.

He said that, unfortunately, Ukraine is unable to control implementation of the legislation on occupied Crimean territory, but it must use all available tools, including international, to protect its national interest.

Members of the Coordination council have condemned Russia’s illegal actions on including cultural monuments, located on the territory of annexed Crimea, to the list of Russian cultural heritage.

This event has been attended by representatives from the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, Ministry of Culture of Ukraine, Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, State Service for Crimea and Sevastopol, Crimean Prosecutor’s Office, Institute of Archaeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Koretsky Institute of state and law of National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Institute of Ukrainian History of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine and others.

Such topics have been additionally raised during the Coordination council’s meeting: legality of international archaeological excavations on Crimean territory; recovery of artifact collections, obtained from archaeological excavations, as well as recovery of private scientific libraries; other topics.