Seven Hermitage museum employees named in illegal Crimean excavation report

The Regional Center for Human Rights has identified seven employees of Russia’s State Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg who have participated in illegal archaeological excavations in occupied Crimea.

The Hermitage, one of Russia’s most famous museums, has long become an instrument of ideological struggle in the hands of the occupying state. The museum’s scientists “systematically work in occupied Crimea, appropriating Ukrainian cultural heritage under the guise of ‘research.'”

Ukraine sanctioned the museum in May 2023 under Presidential Decree №280/2023 for such activities. Between 2014 and 2023, Russia’s Ministry of Culture issued more than 1,355 permits for excavations in Crimea that are illegal under Ukrainian law because they lack approval from Ukrainian authorities.

The report by Regional Center for Human Rights named several Hermitage employees who conducted unauthorized digs. Alexandra Kattsova, a research associate, carried out excavations from 2014 to 2024 at the Kitei settlement site in Lenin district and between Zapovitne village and Kyz-Aul lighthouse with permits from Russia’s Ministry of Culture.

Maria Akhmadeeva, a researcher in the Department of the Ancient World, received seven permits for archaeological research in Crimea between 2017 and 2023. She heads the “Feodosia Expedition of the State Hermitage” and conducted excavations at the “Necropolis of the ancient settlement of Feodosia.”

Svetlana Adaksina, deputy director and chief curator of the Hermitage, obtained eight permits from Russia’s Ministry of Culture for archaeological work in Crimea from 2014 to 2022. She conducted excavations at the “Genoese fortress Chembalo” archaeological heritage site in Balaklava.

Olga Sokolova, senior research associate of the Department of the Ancient World, led archaeological work at the “Archaeological complex ‘Ancient city of Nymphaeum'” in Kerch from 2014 to 2018 and continues to participate in these excavations.

Vasily Gukin, a research associate, conducted illegal excavations at several Ukrainian archaeological monuments including the “Sudak settlement” and “Complex of structures of Sudak fortress” in Sudak with permits from Russia’s Ministry of Culture.

Mark Kramarovsky, leading research associate of the Department of the East, heads the Hermitage’s “Old Crimean (Golden Horde) archaeological expedition” and regularly conducts excavations at various archaeological sites in the “Settlement of Medieval Solkhat” in Stary Krym.

Nadezhda Novoselova, research associate of the Department of Ancient History, spent 10 years excavating at the UNESCO World Heritage site “Ancient city of Chersonesos Tauric and its chora” in Sevastopol.

Russia systematically uses archaeology as an instrument to legitimize the occupation of the Crimean Peninsula, destroying or appropriating Ukrainian cultural heritage in the process.

“The activities of Hermitage employees and support from Russian state bodies constitute a gross violation of international humanitarian law,” according to the report.

All named individuals acted with support from Russia’s Ministry of Culture, which provided Russian scientists with permits for archaeological work through so-called open letters.

It has not been the first time Ukraine has uncovered illegal archaeological excavations. In November 2024, the Prosecutor’s Office of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol filed charges against a Russian citizen conducting illegal archaeological excavations at a Ukrainian cultural heritage site in occupied Crimea.

The prosecutor’s office reported that the suspect has long worked in archaeological research and held the position of head of the ancient archaeology sector at the State Hermitage. “After the occupation of the peninsula and to this day, as head of the ‘Mirmekion Archaeological Expedition’ of the Hermitage, without having any permit documents from the competent authorities of Ukraine, the archaeologist illegally conducts excavations at the cultural heritage site – the ‘Ancient city of Mirmekion’ in Kerch,” the statement reads.

Such actions reportedly lead to the destruction of a site of national significance.

“During the 10 years of Russian occupation, its occupation administration has facilitated illegal archaeological excavations on the territory of the peninsula, which causes destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage sites. The Russian occupying authorities also conduct illegal restorations of such sites to distort Crimean history and demonstrate its ‘Russian’ component,” Igor Ponochevny, head of the autonomous republic’s prosecutor’s office, said.