A charred building, its roof swept by flames. This is all that now remains of the museum in the city of Ivankiv, 80 kilometers from Kyiv, in the Ukraine, after a Russian bombardment on February 25, the day after the start of the invasion decided by Vladimir Poutine. But thanks to the mobilization of the neighbors, a dozen works have been saved.
“When I came back for the first time, I cried a lot, I felt hatred towards the Russians,” Galina Korennaya, director and curator of the museum, confesses to BFMTV, still moved.
On February 25, at 10:15 a.m., when the conflict had just started, a shell fell on the Ivankiv museum. The flames quickly spread throughout the building, endangering its works, including 14 paintings by Maria Primatchenko, a world-renowned Ukrainian painter.
The moment is captured by CCTV and amateur footage. “He’s screwed,” a voice in the background despairs.
The Russians “wanted to destroy our history”
While everyone thinks that the works are lost, some neighbors mobilize. Natacha Haritonoiva and her husband manage to remove the paintings in extremis through a window before the roof collapsed.
“Of course we were afraid. But we would have been ashamed if we, who lived next door, hadn’t done anything to save these paintings,” says the museum’s neighbor.
Several months later, and as the war dragged on, the curator was convinced that the museum was specifically targeted by Russian forces.
“I don’t think it’s a coincidence. They wanted to destroy our history so that our descendants would not know who Maria Primatchenko was,” said the curator of the cultural establishment.
The paintings are currently kept in a secret place pending the departure of the army from Moscow. The museum’s curator assures that the establishment will be rebuilt identically at the end of the conflict and will once again house the artist’s paintings.
Source: BFM TV
