Since 2014, over 5 million documents belonging to Ukraine's National Archival Fund (NAF) — an essential part of national and global cultural heritage — have fallen under russian occupation. A substantial portion of these archives has been illegally removed from temporarily occupied Ukrainian territories, including Crimea, parts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions, and the Kherson region.

Following the liberation of Kherson, it was confirmed that russian occupiers had unlawfully taken nearly 360,000 archival units from the NAF. These actions represent a blatant violation of international humanitarian law, specifically the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

Defence Intelligence of Ukraine and the State Archival Service have published names of individuals and organizations involved in the theft and subsequent integration of Ukrainian archival materials into russia archival infrastructure under the "Stolen Heritage" section of the War & Sanctions portal.

Among them:

• andrey artizov — Head of the russian State Archive;
• oleg lobov — Head of the so-called “State Archival Service of the Republic of Crimea”;
• irina krasnonos — Director of the so-called “Sevastopol City Archive”;
• vitaly semyonov — Founder and head of the public organization “Archival Watch”.

As well as employees of the so-called "State Archive of the Republic of Crimea" who directly participated in the unlawful removal of Kherson's state archival collections in 2022.

Defence Intelligence of Ukraine and the State Archival Service will continue to expose individuals and entities involved in the erasure of historical memory, distortion of history, attempts to annihilate Ukrainian national identity, and efforts to conceal evidence of war crimes.