The Plundering of Ukraine

Alina Dotsenko, director of the Kherson Fine Arts Museum, in front of empty shelves in the museum’s storage rooms after they were looted by Russia in early November, photographed on Nov. 16, 2022. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)

The recapture of the city of Kherson by Ukrainian on — appropriately — Remembrance Day, 2022, was too late to save the city’s priceless heritage.

Russian troops and civilian assistants systematically plundered thousands of valuable artifacts and artworks from two museums, a cathedral, and a national archive in Kherson, before withdrawing.