Crimean Museum Struck by Ukrainian Drone, Reportedly Damaging Collection
A Ukrainian drone strike reportedly damaged a 19th-century museum in Sevastopol, Crimea, a territory occupied by Russia since 2014, according to Sevastopol’s Russian-appointed governor Mikhail Razvozhayev. Razvozhayev said the museum’s panorama painting “The Siege of Sevastopol” by Franz Roubaud was damaged, though parts of the original canvas remained unharmed, and emergency services extinguished a fire at the site. The museum is dedicated to the 1853–56 Crimean War, and Razvozhayev compared the incident to World War II-era bombing of the same building. The report also notes Ukraine’s allegations of cultural-property looting, including Kherson Regional Art Museum staff saying they identified a 1986 painting by Nina Marchenko stolen in 2022 in Crimea’s Central Museum of Tavrida, and references EU sanctions imposed last year on the Tauric Chersonese State Museum-Preserve and its director Elena Morozova.
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This story was covered in Repatriation Reckonings and Museums Under Siege