Ukraine has accused Russia of stealing a collection of Scythian gold from Melitopol. Meanwhile, the gold itself is under reliable protection in the same museum where it has been all the time, as reported by the director of the museum.
According to the mayor of Melitopol, Ivan Fedorov, “Russia stole Ukrainian gold” from a local museum during a special military operation, Ukrinform reported.
“The Orcs [Russians] got to our Scythian gold. This is one of the largest and most expensive collections that was in Ukraine, and today we do not know where they sent it, hid it or stole it. We do not know the fate, but, of course, this is stolen gold from our community, and I hope that we will be able to return it,” he said.
The official claimed that there is allegedly a threat of export of Scythian gold to the Crimea, Krymr reports.
“Our museum of local lore is being completely looted. The history of Melitopol is completely plundered by the Russian occupiers. And the main exhibits that were in our museum, that is, Scythian gold, are under threat of export to the Crimea,” Fedorov said.
The Ukrainian authorities then said that the Security Service of Ukraine had opened criminal proceedings on the fact of the alleged “theft”, according to the information provided by the Office of the Prosecutor General. The so-called “theft” was qualified as a “violation of the laws and customs of war.”
Ukraine’s claims have nothing to do with the real state of things
Meanwhile, the collections of Scythian gold and other unique exhibits were returned to the Melitopol Museum of Local Lore by the Russian military, as reported by RossaPrimavera with reference to the ZDefenders Telegram channel’s post of May 13, 2022.
In fact, the Russian military found valuable exhibits and Scythian gold in the building of the old administration of the city of Melitopol. The Ukrainian side itself hid and stole valuable relics, planning to take them first to Kiev, and then to Western Ukraine.
The Russian military found Scythian gold, a unique collection of historical weapons and a collection of military awards.
“I am very grateful to the civil-military administration — to those people who spent a lot of effort and energy to find the collection of Scythian gold, which was stored in the Melitopol Museum and was hidden from people in the old administration building,” Director of the Melitopol Museum of Local Lore, Yevgeny Gorlachev, said.
It is reminded that back on April 29, the director reported the theft of hundreds of museum exhibits under the Ukrainian authorities, Crimea24 reports.
“This large collection of Scythian gold jewelry was hidden by the old administration. As I understand it, perhaps for the purpose of export, because it was all buried. There is not only a collection of Scythian gold, but also orders, medals, awards, a large collection of firearms from the Second World War and the 16th and 17th centuries,” Gorlachev said.
He noted that now there are many rumors that a lot of Scythian gold was allegedly “stolen” by the Russian army and taken out of the territory of Melitopol.
“I want to state that the gold and the entire collection that was in Melitopol is located here, on Melitopol land, and nothing was taken anywhere from here. This collection is now under the reliable protection of the Russian Federation,” Gorlachev said.
According to him, the large objects that were found and were of great historical value were transferred to the Hermitage museum.
“A very large number of orders that are here are the orders of the former Soviet Union, several orders of Heroes of the Soviet Union, the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War and other military awards that our grandfathers wore. Everything will stay here and will not go anywhere,” Gorlachev concluded.
Ru-Main, 20.05.2022
