His carefully chosen words were designed to erase the collectionвЂ™s Ukrainian heritage and replace it with a Soviet one, one that suggested Ukraine was back within RussiaвЂ™s sphere of influence and control.ДЄ hall in the museum of Arkhip Kuindzhi, a Russian artist, destroyed after shelling by Russian-backed separatists in Mariupol. The items were taken to Donetsk, in the Russian-controlled Donbas region, for вЂњsafetyвЂќ, with the museumвЂ™s newly installed puppet director, Evgeny Gorlachev, stating that the gold artefacts were not just for Ukrainians but вЂњof great cultural value for the entire former Soviet UnionвЂќ. Kucher was later abducted from her home on 30 April and her whereabouts remains unknown.ДЄccording to a report on the theft in the New York Times, Russian troops eventually found the gold hoard, which dates back to the fourth century BC, boxed up in the museumвЂ™s basement. She also refused to locate the collection. Subsequently the museumвЂ™s curator Galina Andriivna Kucher was taken at gunpoint to the museum and asked to show a Russian вЂњexpertвЂќ and agents where the gold was. They demanded to know where the Scythian gold was she refused to cooperate. Just a few weeks later, she was kidnapped and interrogated by Russian troops. A s RussiaвЂ™s invasion of Ukraine began, the director of the Museum of Local History in Melitopol in the south-east of the country, Leila Ibrahimova, arranged for a hoard of gold artefacts from ancient Scythia to be hidden.

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