Investigators of the Security Service of Ukraine have notified the occupying minister of culture in the temporarily occupied territory (TOT) of Kherson region, Artem Lahoyskyi, of suspicion.
This was reported in the notice of suspicion on the website of the Office of the Prosecutor General.
According to the investigation, on the eve of the de-occupation of the right-bank part of Kherson region, in the autumn of 2022, Lahoyskyi held the position of the so-called acting first deputy of the occupation minister of culture of Kherson Oblast. It was Lahoyskyi, together with his immediate former supervisor Oleksandr Kuzmenko, who were instructed to organize the removal of collections from Kherson museums.
In particular, Lahoyskyi personally controlled the looting of the Kherson Regional Art Museum named after Shovkunenko. He gave instructions to the then director-collaborator Nataliia Desiatova, set strict deadlines for packing paintings and oversaw the loading of trucks.
The process also involved specialists from Crimea who helped select the most valuable exhibits for removal to territories controlled by Russia, the notice of suspicion says.
According to investigators’ calculations, from October 31 to November 4, 2022, 10,785 items of cultural property belonging to the state of Ukraine were stolen from the museum’s collections.
For this, Lahoyskyi is suspected under part 2 of Article 28 and part 1 of Article 438 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine – violation of the laws and customs
of war.