The Ukrainian government has passed a resolution aimed at expediting the evacuation of more than three million cultural objects from frontline regions as Russia’s full-scale invasion approaches its fourth anniversary. The war has upended civilian life in Ukraine and resulted in the damage, destruction, or disappearance of cultural sites and museum property, much of it attributed to Russian forces.
“The resolution creates a more predictable, systematic, and secure model for protecting museum objects during war, combining clear rules, government accountability, and flexibility in crisis situations,” the Ukrainain culture ministry said in an announcement on February 18.
Last April, Ukraine accused Russia of enabling the theft of more than 1.7 million Ukrainian artworks and artifacts, many of which preservationists believe have entered the black market. Since Russia’s illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, Ukrainian cultural officials have appealed to counterparts in Europe and the United Kingdom for help combating what they describe as an increasingly transnational trafficking network—one that has only expanded more than three years into the full-scale invasion.
That same month, the Kherson Art Museum said Russian forces had looted roughly 15,000 objects from its collection, including 100 paintings identified by staff in footage from a Russian broadcast, and transferred them to the Central Museum of Tavrida in Crimea, the Black Sea peninsula that Ukraine and its allies regard as occupied Ukrainian territory. A large swath of Kherson, located along Ukraine’s southern border, is currently illegally occupied by Russia.
“Fifty kilometers from the front line is now a clear zone for the mandatory evacuation of museum items,” Ukraine’s culture minister, Tetyana Berezhna, wrote in a February 18 Facebook post, as first reported by The Art Newspaper. Cultural objects must now be stored at least 75 kilometers from the front, she said, adding that new direct and adaptive procedures have also been introduced.
“The head of [an] institution has the right to act independently in case of a threat, without waiting for approval,” Berezhna wrote. “We are introducing a three-stage evacuation system, depending on the value of the property.”
In May 2025, the European Union sanctioned a Russian museum for the first time over its activities in Crimea. The Tauric Chersonese State Museum-Preserve, located on the outskirts of Sevastopol, Crimea, and its director, Elena Morozova, were added to the sanctions list for “undermining or threatening the territorial integrity, sovereignty, and independence of Ukraine.”
The unprecedented sanction followed calls from a group of art experts urging the International Council of Museums, the nongovernmental body that sets professional standards for museums, to expel Russia for violating its code of ethics.
