MP found guilty of stealing valuables from Crimea donates collection to museum

The National Museum of History of Ukraine has received more than 7,000 unique archaeological valuables. These artifacts were discovered by employees of the State Bureau of Investigation from a former MP of Ukraine, who headed the Council of Ministers of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in the early 2000s.

This was reported by the State Bureau of Investigation.

The collection, which has exceptional historical and cultural value, covers a huge time period - from the Bronze Age to the late Middle Ages. Among the donated items is a unique Hun sword decorated with gold and almandines, which resembles a Hun tiara stolen from Melitopol.

The museum's collection also includes a golden Byzantine icon depicting the Archangel Michael, Scythian Akinak swords, twelfth-century chainmail, Trypillian culture dishes, Hellenistic helmets, and armor from the 16th and 19th centuries, including the helmets of Polish hussars.

Law enforcement officers also found coins dating from antiquity to the late Middle Ages and various cold steel weapons. Some of these valuables, which could have been illegally removed from the Museum's collection or found during illegal excavations, have already been presented to visitors, as they were previously transferred for safekeeping. The Office of the Prosecutor General is providing procedural guidance in this case.

Earlier, in<span> the occupied Crimea, Russians systematically destroy cultural monuments and use them for military purposes. In addition, they restrict Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar education, persecute journalists and export historical property from the peninsula.</span>

The UNESCO Executive Board has decided to continue monitoring the situation in the annexed Crimea. According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, this is due to Russia's destruction of Ukrainian cultural heritage and other violations of rights on the peninsula.

Катерина Глушко