Poland is ready to safekeep objects of Ukraine’s cultural heritage during the war period, Polish Deputy Minister of Culture and National Heritage Jarosław Sellin said this on Polish Radio.There are prepared warehouses in libraries and museum archives in Poland, ready to receive collections if the Ukrainians decide to take them out. Currently Ukrainians prefer to move cultural property to safer places within the country, but there are not so many of these places in Ukraine, since the Russian bombings affect the entire territory of Ukraine, Jarosław Sellin also added.
And it is true, because the Russian war in Ukraine takes not only the lives of Ukrainians, but destroys its cultural heritage. Bombs destroy museums, libraries, churches and mosques, universities and theaters. Aivazovsky and Kuindzhi’s paintings, Scythian gold, manuscripts and other artifacts are taken from the occupied territories by the Russian military. According to many experts, the theft of works of art and museum artifacts was sanctioned by Putin himself. He actually legalized the theft of Ukrainian cultural heritage by declaring martial law on the territories of Ukraine illegally annexed by the Russian Federation.
Ukraine has faced such a scale of hostilities for the first time since World War II. The threat of missile strikes has made the definition of “safe areas” for the movement of people and valuables problematic, if not conditional. The destruction of cultural values is not a side effect of the war, but a conscious policy of the Russian armed forces. It is as if the Russian army has never heard of international conventions. The Russians do not seem to even think about the fact that the destruction of cultural heritage is the same war crime as the destruction of civilian facilities and infrastructure, the killing and terror of civilians.
From the first days of the full-scale invasion of the Russian Federation into the territory of Ukraine, Poland has become one of the most reliable partners in the fight against Russian terror. Therefore, the statement of the representative of the Polish Ministry of Culture about assistance in the preservation of cultural heritage is quite obvious and predictable. But here we should not forget that discrediting the partners of Ukraine and the Ukrainian authorities is the main goal of Russian propaganda. Traditionally, the Kremlin creates a lot of fakes about Ukraine, most of it about countries and organizations that are helping Ukrainians in this war. For example, Poland is included in this list of Russian interests, if not tops it. Russian propagandists have repeatedly assured that Poland allegedly is going to annex part of the western regions of Ukraine or that a large number of Polish mercenaries are fighting for Ukraine. They in Russia immediately concluded that the “absorption” of Ukraine had begun after the visit of the President of Poland A. Duda to Kyiv and the new friendship agreement between the countries. All these fictions and narratives of Russian propaganda are aimed at discrediting Ukraine’s relations with Western partners. Their main goal remains to split relations, in particular between Poland and Ukraine. After all, from the first days of the full-scale invasion it is Poland that has been a reliable ally of Ukraine. The country’s President Andrzej Duda has repeatedly stated that the best end to the war is Ukraine’s victory with the restoration of territorial integrity. The Kremlin’s narrative about the seizure of Ukrainian lands by Poland remains a bluff and a propaganda myth, because the strengthening of Polish-Ukrainian relations, Poland’s support for Ukraine in the world greatly hinders the enemy.
The events of recent months and days only emphasize what everyone sees, because now it is not Poland who wants to destroy Ukraine, its energy system and take control, but Russia, which since the beginning of October last year has been systematically shelling energy facilities throughout Ukraine. And it is Russia that occupies the territories of Ukraine, holds fake referendums, killing civilians, making their life unbearable. Therefore, only the joint efforts of Ukraine and its international partners can stop the “Russian world” that brings an evil with it, which has become “Russian terror” for the whole world.