Kyiv Independent identifies high-ranking Russian officer, officials involved in looting of museums in southern Ukraine

The Kyiv Independent identified a Russian military officer and three Russian-appointed officials from occupied Crimea who were responsible for the illegal removal of artworks and artifacts from two Kherson museums in the fall of 2022.

Fleeing a Ukrainian counteroffensive, Russian forces collectively stole more than 33,000 historical artifacts and works of art. This museum theft is the largest in Europe since World War II.

Those who oversaw the theft are Dmitry Lipov, head of the communications center of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, who served as the city's commandant during the occupation of Kherson, Sergey Patrushev, appointed by the Russian authorities to head the museum department of the so-called Crimean Ministry of Culture, Elena Morozova and Mikhail Smorodkin, appointed by the Russian authorities as directors of the Crimean museums, Tauric Chersonese and the Museum of Defense of Sevastopol.

The findings are the basis for the Kyiv Independent's War Crimes Investigation Unit's documentary "Curated Theft."

Russia’s looting of history is a theft of who we are

I first visited the looted museums of Kherson, a city in southern Ukraine, in May 2024. At the time, my team at the Kyiv Independent’s War Crimes Investigations Unit and I were beginning an investigation into the illegal export of artifacts from Kherson to occupied Crimea by Russian forces

The Kyiv IndependentYevheniia Motorevska

To identify those who took part in the government-sanctioned theft, the Kyiv Independent journalist posed as a Russian TV producer and as a Russian investigator to communicate with local collaborators who helped Russian troops loot.

The Kyiv Independent found that Russian officer Lipov was responsible for securing the collections during their removal and personally sealed the trucks that carried the stolen items.

Patrushev was responsible for moving paintings from the Kherson Art Museum to occupied Crimea.

The directors of the Crimean museums chose items from the Kherson Local History museum's collection during the looting.

The Kyiv Independent also found that the illegal removal of collections from Kherson to occupied Crimea was supervised by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).

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