Ukraine's Culture Ministry introduces evacuation of museums within 50 km of front

Daria Lobanok - 19 February, 12:02

The painting Pisnia (Song) by Tetiana Staroselska, which was taken by Russian forces from Kherson during their retreat. Photo: Kherson Art Museum

The Ukrainian government has adopted a resolution setting out the procedure for evacuating cultural valuables during martial law. The document was drafted by the Ministry of Culture.

Source: Tetiana Berezhna, Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture

Details: The Ministry of Culture has introduced mandatory evacuation of exhibits from territories located within 50 km of the line of contact, as well as from areas included in the official list of territories where hostilities are ongoing or which are temporarily occupied by Russia. A decision on mandatory evacuation may be taken by an oblast military administration in coordination with military command.

Berezhnа also highlighted another new requirement: evacuated valuables must be placed in territories located at least 75 km from the line of contact.

In preparing the resolution, previous experience and procedural weaknesses were taken into account, along with proposals from civil society.

The Ministry of Culture stated that procedures have been significantly simplified. From now on, the ministry will make decisions regarding state institutions, while oblast military administrations will decide for municipal institutions. The head of an institution is also entitled to act independently in the event of a threat, without prior approval.

The resolution introduces a three-stage evacuation system depending on the value of items and the degree of risk.

The document also establishes an obligation to decide on the return of evacuated valuables within 12 months after the end of martial law. If return is impossible, the authority that decided on the evacuation must determine their further place of storage.

Background:

Sumy Oblast is among the regions frequently targeted by Russian attacks. On 23 April, a guided aerial bomb struck a local history museum in the village of Ulanove in the Esman hromada. [A hromada is an administrative unit designating a village, several villages, or a town, and their adjacent territories – ed.] The museum's collection was completely destroyed by fire, causing the hromada to lose its archaeological and palaeontological items, its photo archive and its early printed books.
Authorities in Sumy Oblast reported that the evacuation of museum collections in the region was ongoing, and valuables classified as first and second stage had already been removed. However, after Russian forces attacked Sumy's historic centre on 13 April, it was revealed that a collection was still being stored in the basement of the damaged Art Museum.
By September 2025, more than 670,000 museum items had been evacuated from frontline regions across Ukraine, including 100,000 in 2025 alone.

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