American researchers are documenting via satellite how the Russians are destroying hundreds of museums, monuments and churches. The aim of the data collection: to save what can be saved – and to prove the war crimes before the International Criminal Court.
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Jörg Haentzschel
A few weeks ago, the museum in the Ukrainian city of Melitopol received a visitor: a man wearing white gloves and a lab coat, followed by a unit of Russian soldiers, gained access to the basement of the building. There he opened cardboard boxes in which gold jewelry of the Scythians from the fourth century BC was hidden – one of the most valuable collections in Ukraine. The man carefully took out the pieces and packed them up. Then the group left with the gold. The visit was not entirely unexpected, however. Shortly before, the director of the museum had been kidnapped.