The US government continues to pump money into Ukraine. Last week, President Joe Biden announced an $8 billion security aid injection ahead of President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s recent visit to Washington – adding to the $61.3 billion already promised to Kyiv. The fresh round of financing includes cultural support to the tune of $1 million to stem Russia’s pillaging and trafficking of Ukraine’s heritage.
Washington has partnered up with the University of Pennsylvania’s (Penn) Cultural Heritage Center to ensure the cultural package is as effective as possible. The State Department said the money will help equip Ukrainians with “the data and skills they need to repair and restore damage to cultural heritage and to counter false narratives about Russia’s unprovoked war and Ukraine’s unique cultural identity.”
Brian I. Daniels, who is the director of research and programmes at the Penn Cultural Heritage Center, testified before US Congress on September 25 during a session about Russia’s targeting of Ukrainian culture and identity. “Cultural targeting should concern us greatly,” he said.
The FBI and Justice Department are also working with Ukraine’s Prosecutor General to boost Kyiv’s ability to track, investigate, and prosecute cultural theft, looting, and trafficking from Ukraine. Representatives from the Ukrainian Persecutor General’s office accompanied Zelenskyy’s trip to the US last week. They said in a statement that they discussed “the issue of documenting war crimes and the illegal movement of cultural values” with the US government.
On September 10, emergency import restrictions were imposed by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security under the Convention on Cultural Property Implementation Act to halt the illegal removal and sale of Ukraine’s cultural heritage. The restrictions are in place until 2029.
In one example of suspected pillaging of Ukraine’s culture by Russia, four antique sabers that were sent from Russia to the US were seized by customs at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2022. Mykola Tochytskyi, Ukraine’s minister of culture and strategic communications, traveled with Zelenskyy’s delegation to Washington last week, where she secured the repatriation of the swords. The National Museum of History Ukraine identified them as dating from between the 9th and 13th centuries and said they had belonged to nomadic and seminomadic inhabitants of the Eurasian steppe.
“Each returned artefact is a small victory in our struggle for our identity and, ultimately, for our victory,” Tochytskyi said. “Our artefacts are the symbols of the Ukraine, its aspiration for freedom and independence. And as long as we have them, we will live, fight, and win.”
