Ukraine has recorded damage to or destruction of 1,990 cultural heritage sites as a result of unlawful actions by members of Russia's armed forces.

The Prosecutor General’s Office of Ukraine reported this.

In connection with the destruction and demolition of cultural property, prosecutors and law enforcement officers have notified 11 members of Russia’s armed forces that they are suspected of an offence under Article 438 of Ukraine’s Criminal Code.

Crimes against cultural heritage in the temporarily occupied territories are being documented separately. There, Russia is not only damaging heritage sites but also removing and appropriating cultural property.

One such case has been established in occupied Crimea.

After the peninsula was seized, Russian archaeologists conducted illegal excavations at the Medieval Solkhat Settlement, a heritage site of national significance in Staryi Krym.

The work was carried out without Ukrainian permits. As a result of the excavations, the cultural layer of the 13th–14th century site was partially destroyed.

During this work, archaeological valuables were removed — elements of an ancient water supply system, glazed bowls and fragments of ceramic vessels.

One of the expedition members handed part of the finds over to the State Hermitage Museum. Russia subsequently entered them into the State Catalogue of its own museum collection.

A Ukrainian heritage site in occupied territory was thus damaged, while the artefacts removed from it were effectively registered by the aggressor state as part of its own museum heritage.

According to the investigation, a research fellow at the State Hermitage Museum and a representative of the so-called Institute of Archaeology of Crimea of the Russian Academy of Sciences are implicated in this.