Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (GUR) has published a new list of 14 people it says are involved in the unlawful removal of cultural assets from temporarily occupied territories.
In the “Stolen Heritage” section of the War&Sanctions portal, GUR posted information on 14 more individuals allegedly linked to the illegal appropriation and export of cultural property from museums and reserves in temporarily occupied areas of Ukraine, the agency said.
The new list includes collaborator Artem Lahoysky, the so‑called “culture minister of the Kherson region.” According to GUR, he was among the organizers and direct perpetrators of the looting of Kherson museums during the city’s occupation.
In 2022, Lahoysky, together with Russian Black Sea Fleet officer Dmitry Lipov, who served as the “commandant” of Kherson, organized the theft of the remains of Grigory Potemkin from St. Catherine’s Cathedral, GUR said.
Lahoysky also took part in staging a propaganda exhibition, “Always New Kakhovka,” at the Moscow office of Transneft, where paintings by Ukrainian artist A. S. Havzdynsky—unlawfully removed from the Novokakhovka City Gallery—were displayed, according to the agency.
GUR also released information on individuals involved in the seizure of the Kamiana Mohyla (Stone Grave) National Historical and Archaeological Reserve and its illegal incorporation into the so‑called Chersonesus Taurica museum‑reserve in occupied Crimea. Under the guise of “temporary exhibitions,” Ukrainian museum pieces were exported, the agency said.
“For every criminal act against the Ukrainian people, its culture and historical heritage, there will be just retribution,” GUR said.
