The international delegation, headed by Ana Lucía Bueno, ICRC Public Health Coordinator, and Sujit Panda, Head of the Physical Rehabilitation…
Eight anthropomorphic stone sculptures — Polovtsian statues of the 11th–13th centuries — were evacuated from the front line by fighters of the 25th Airborne Sic
This is a systematic policy of the brigade, as saving Ukrainian historical heritage from russian occupiers is extremely important.
This was reported in an exclusive comment to ArmyInform by Valerii, call sign “Archaeologist”, representative of civil-military cooperation of the 25th Separate Airborne Sichyslav Brigade of the 7th Corps of the Ukrainian Air Assault Forces.
“I work on veteran policy and the veteran center in the brigade. Since I have a degree in history, specializing in Archaeology, I additionally propose evacuation of historical monuments to the brigade command when necessary — and the commander supports such operations. By the way, this is one of the tasks that CIMIC service members must perform in units.
We work with museum staff of the Dmytro Yavornytskyi Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum, primarily with deputy director and historian Yurii Fanyhin.
He is proactive and active regarding evacuations”, — he said.
Representatives of the Ukrainian diaspora and benefactors, such as the charity foundation supporting the 25th Airborne Brigade, sometimes join the operations.
They prepare carefully — determining the storage locations of museum exhibits, preparing documents, and coordinating movement with local authorities and the military.
“We jointly solve this task, involving the culture department of the Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Administration, local authorities, researchers of the Yavornytskyi Museum, and, of course, our brigade.
This is a systemic policy of the 25th Sichyslav Brigade — we approach the fight against the russians comprehensively, understanding that they wage war on different fronts. Occupiers are trying to erase and appropriate our history — the history of our lands, of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people”, — the serviceman explained.
During a recent rescue operation, paratroopers evacuated five unique medieval anthropomorphic monuments — Polovtsian statues of the 11th–13th centuries — often informally called “Scythian”.
“These five stone statues we delivered to the Dmytro Yavornytskyi Dnipropetrovsk National Historical Museum, adding to the ones previously evacuated. They will temporarily remain with the local museum collection of over 100 stone statues”, — Valerii said.
Evacuation is carried out only when it does not expose soldiers to unjustified risk and does not negatively affect combat missions.
“We evacuate whenever possible — using our own means or involving volunteers or local authorities. It is important because russian occupiers try to seize and appropriate all our heritage, conduct so-called ‘cultural cleansing’, which is a crime under international law.
This concerns Scythians, ancient Greek colonies — all of Crimea, the entire Northern Black Sea region, all our monuments. russians want all this to work against Ukraine, to claim Ukrainians supposedly never existed here, and these lands were always ‘primordially russian’.
Therefore, our task is to preserve all these monuments — they are our national cultural heritage and belong to the Ukrainian people. And we in the brigade understand this well and counter the occupiers in this dimension too”, — emphasized Valerii.
