On March 10, on the territory of the Embassy of Ukraine in the United States, an official ceremony was held to return to Ukraine cultural and historical artifacts which were detained in September last year by the US Customs and Border Protection Service while trying to illegally import it from the russian federation.
Among the returned artifacts: akinaka swords of the Scythian culture of the 6th-5th centuries. BC (the area of distribution is the forest-steppe and steppe parts of Ukraine and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea), a polished flint ax dated to the 3rd millennium BC (distribution area: the northwestern part of Ukraine), cuman sabers, dating back to the 11th-12th centuries, and many other artefacts.
“We will return everything that russia has stolen: territories, people, works of art and cultural heritage. Let’s start now. Thank you to the law enforcement agencies of the United States and Ukraine, Oksana Markarova and all those involved for carrying out such an operation,” Oleksandr Tkachenko commented on the event.
Further, the issue of transportation of salvaged artifacts to the territory of Ukraine will be resolved.
“russia has a long-standing tradition of appropriating what does not belong to it. Together with the Ukrainian territory, the same applies to our cultural material and intangible heritage, which is now being barbarically looted by the occupiers. Thank you to everyone who implemented this extremely difficult, but very important operation,” Ukraine’s Ambassador to the USA Oksana Markarova said.
