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CNN —A haul of Ukrainian treasures sent to Europe for an exhibition nearly 10 years ago have been returned to Kyiv from the Netherlands after a lengthy legal battle. The collection of ancient artifacts was dispatched to the Netherlands from four museums in Crimea before Russia’s annexation of the region in 2014. The collection comprised 565 items, including antique sculptures, Scythian and Sarmatian jewelry, and Chinese lacquer boxes that are 2,000 years old, the museum said. “The exhibition in the Netherlands was showing the history of Ukrainian Crimea, therefore it is exclusively the people of Ukraine who should possess these treasures,” he added. Ultimately, the Supreme Court of the Netherlands ruled on June 9 of this year that the collection should be returned to Kyiv.

Persons: Peter Dejong, Rostyslav, ”, Allard Pierson, Els van der Plas Organizations: CNN, National Museum of, Sunday, Ukraine’s Ministry of Culture, Kyiv Locations: Europe, Kyiv, Netherlands, Crimea, Amsterdam, Ukraine, Ukrainian Crimea, Pechersk

The Old City of Jerusalem and its walls were inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1981, but UNESCO doesn't list it under Israel or Palestine. Whereas other sites are listed by country, UNESCO lists the site separately, under "Jerusalem (Site proposed by Jordan)." Source: Screenshot from UNESCOIsrael, which joined UNESCO in 1949, has nine sites named to the list, including Masada, the Old City of Acre and the "White City" of Tel Aviv. A backdrop of political alliancesUNESCO's decision to add Tell es-Sultan/Jericho to its World Heritage Site has angered Israeli officials, with Israel's foreign ministry releasing a statement Sunday calling it a "cynical" ploy by the Palestinians to politicize UNESCO. Kyiv's Saint Sophia Cathedral is now on UNESCO's List of World Heritage in Danger.

Persons: Archivio J, Lange, De Agostini, Mounir, Jordan, Masada, Anastas, Saint Sophia Cathedral, Kyiv's, Kyiv's Saint Sophia, Pollex Organizations: UNESCO, Getty, Bank, Saudi Press Agency, The, City of, UNESCO Israel, politicize UNESCO, Saudi, U.S, Biden, United, UNESCO —, World, Saint Locations: Jericho, Palestine, Old City, Jerusalem, City, City of Jerusalem, Israel, Acre, Tel Aviv, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Saudi Arabia, Mecca, Medina, Saudi, United States, Ukraine, Lavra, Kyiv, Pechersk, Lviv, Kyiv's Saint

☆ Russian soldiers say they dream of conquering Ukrainian cities and moving their families there in haunting recruitment ad
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-19 | by ( Katherine Tangalakis-Lippert | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +2 min

Russian troops wistfully discuss plans to "recapture Kyiv" in a haunting new recruitment ad. The commercial shows soldiers planning to move their families to conquered Ukrainian cities. Russia, which has struggled to recruit troops, has doubled payments to soldiers since the war began. It's a cool area," a second Russian Army member replies as gunfire pops and explosions ring out in the background. When the war is over and we recapture Kyiv, I will move my family there."

Persons: wistfully Organizations: Service, Russian Armed Forces, Moscow Times, Russian Army, Pentagon, of America, NATO Locations: Kyiv, Ukrainian, Russia, Wall, Silicon, Ukraine

☆ Russian landmark added to UNESCO World Heritage List
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-18 | by ( Tamara Hardingham-Gill | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +2 min

CNN —A university observatory in Russia has been inscribed onto the UNESCO World Heritage List. The astronomical observatories of Kazan Federal University, located in the city of Kazan, were added to the esteemed list on Monday as UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee continued its deliberations in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. New additionsEthiopia’s Bale Mountains National Park has been inscribed on the coveted UNESCO World Heritage List. ‘Outstanding universal value’Maison Carrée, an ancient Roman temple in Nîmes, southern France, was added to the World Heritage List. Dominique Marck/Ville de Nîmes/UNESCO World Heritage Nomination OfficeThe committee is to review the remaining nominations, which includes Ohio’s Hopewell Ceremonial Earthworks, over the next few days.

Persons: Bale, Daniel Rosengren, Ethiopia’s Bale, Mount Pelée, Maison Carrée, Dominique Marck, Sophia Cathedral, ”, CNN’s Marnie Hunter, Francesca Street Organizations: CNN, UNESCO, Kazan Federal University, Heritage Committee, Observatory, de Nîmes Locations: Russia, Kazan, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, France, Phrygia, Turkey, Gaya, South Korea, Denmark, Odzala, Congo, Mount, Martinique, Nîmes, Ukraine, Kyiv, Pechersk, Lviv

☆ UNESCO adds new sites to the World Heritage List
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-16 | by ( Tamara Hardingham-Gill | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +4 min

CNN —UNESCO’s World Heritage Committee has wrapped up its deliberations related to sites that are in danger and began adding new sites on Saturday to its prestigious World Heritage List. Deliberations started Saturday considering 50 sites nominated for the well-known World Heritage List. Yurii Stefanyak/Global Images Ukraine/Getty ImagesThe World Heritage in Danger List includes heritage sites that are threatened by forces such as armed conflict, natural disasters, pollution and more. World Heritage ListAs discussions moved to contenders for the World Heritage List, the Forest Massif of Odzala-Kokoua in Congo was inscribed on Saturday. Sites must be of “outstanding universal value” to be added to the World Heritage List, according to UNESCO.

Persons: CNN —, Sophia Cathedral, Ukraine —, Mount Pelée, Yurii, Sophia, ”, “, ” CNN’s Marnie Hunter, Francesca Street Organizations: CNN, Kyiv, UNESCO Locations: Ukraine, Kyiv, Pechersk, Lviv, Odzala, Congo, Mount, Martinique, Venice, Long, Ba, Ha Long, Denmark, Ohio

☆ Fact Check-Treasures from Kyiv monastery not going ‘under the hammer’ in France on Oct. 1
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-03 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

False information about a non-existent auction of artefacts belonging to a Ukrainian Orthodox monastery is being circulated online by people who believe it to be real. According to a public billboard seen in an image on social media, French auction house Osenat is planning an Oct. 1 event to sell off “treasures” from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, a 980-year-old monastery in the Ukrainian capital. The billboard uses the auction house’s logo, Orthodox imagery, and includes the date, time, and description of the alleged event. Reuters also found that the billboard image is fabricated. There is no record of such an event on the Osenat website and the auction house told Reuters it is false.

Persons: ”, Read Organizations: Russian Art, Reuters Locations: Ukrainian, Kyiv, Pechersk, Kiev, Paris, Versailles

☆ Corruption, treason in Ukraine won't be tolerated, Zelenskiy says
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-25 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

The president last month announced plans to audit military draft offices to try to eliminate corruption. "Let me warn all members of parliament, officials and everyone working as a civil servant," he said. "No one will forgive members of parliament, judges, military officials or any other officials for placing themselves in opposition to the state." CORRUPTION, TREASON CHARGESEarlier, legal authorities said the head of a military recruitment centre in southern Ukraine accused of corruption and embezzlement had been ordered held in pre-trial detention, with bail set at the equivalent of just over $4 million. And the prosecutor general's office said parliamentarian Oleksandr Ponomaryov, suspected of collaborating with Russia in the occupied southeast, had been arrested pending trial on treason charges.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Zelenskiy, Yevhen Borysov, Novikov, Borysov, general's, Oleksandr Ponomaryov, Kyiv's, Ron Popeski, Nick Starkov, Grant McCool Organizations: European Union, Ukraine's National Agency on Corruption Prevention, Thomson Locations: Russia, Ukraine, Odesa, Spain, Kyiv's Pechersk

☆ At least one drone downed in new air attack on Kyiv
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

[1/3] An explosion of a drone is seen in the sky over the city during a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine May 4, 2023. REUTERS/Gleb GaranichMay 4 (Reuters) - Drones attacked Kyiv on Thursday evening, subjecting residents to spasms of gunfire and explosions in the fourth attack on the capital in as many days. "During the last air alert, an unmanned aerial vehicle was spotted over Kyiv. The object was shot down by air defence forces," Kyiv city military administration head Serhiy Popko said on Telegram. Residents who had gone to air raid shelters said the drones had arrived more quickly than usual after the alerts were declared.

☆ Ukraine cleric accused of glorifying Russia invasion given house arrest
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Kyiv is cracking down on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) on the grounds it is pro-Russian and collaborating with Moscow, a charge the church denies. In a statement, the UOC said a Kyiv court also ordered Metropolitan Pavlo to wear an electronic bracelet. The Interfax Ukraine and Ukrinform news agencies said Pavlo had been given 60 days of house arrest. Prosecutors said the house arrest and electronic bracelet were precautionary measures and that the case against Pavlo would continue. Moscow said last month that Ukraine was "illegally attacking" the UOC, adding this confirmed the need for its military operations in Ukraine.

☆ Top Ukraine cleric accused of glorifying Russian invasion appears in court
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-01 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The hearing was adjourned to Monday after the cleric, Metropolitan Pavlo of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC), complained of ill health. The court appearance came after Pavlo was questioned by the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), which presented the cleric with a series of accusations on the same issue shortly before. The UOC has been accused of maintaining links to the pro-invasion Russian Orthodox Church, which used to be its parent church but with which the UOC says it all broke ties in May 2022. The UOC is Ukraine's second-largest church, though most Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to a separate branch of the faith, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formed four years ago by uniting branches independent of Moscow's authority. In a video posted to the UOC website earlier in the day, Pavlo said he condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

☆ Zelenskiy: Ukraine seeks 'spiritual independence', acts against church
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-12 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 12 (Reuters) - Ukraine's punitive actions against a branch of the Orthodox church linked to Russia are part of a drive to achieve "spiritual independence," President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Sunday. Zelenskiy and other Ukrainian leaders have accused the long-established Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) of undermining Ukrainian unity and collaborating with Moscow. "One more step towards strengthening our spiritual independence was taken this week," Zelenskiy said in his nightly video address, without referring directly to the order. Orthodoxy is the primary faith in Ukraine and the Moscow-linked church has been in competition for worshippers with an independent Orthodox Church, founded after the Soviet collapse in 1991 but only recognised by church hierarchy in 2018. The Ukrainian culture ministry says the Moscow-linked church has until March 29 to leave the Pechersk Lavra monastery complex.

☆ Russian Orthodox head appeals against eviction of church from Kyiv
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-11 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 11 (Reuters) - Patriarch Kirill, head of the Russian Orthodox Church, on Saturday asked Pope Francis and other religious leaders to persuade Ukraine to stop a crackdown against a historically Russian-aligned wing of the church. Kyiv on Friday ordered the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) to leave a monastery complex where it is based, the latest move against a denomination the government says is pro-Russian and collaborating with Moscow. Kirill said it was regrettable that Ukrainian worshippers' rights and freedoms were being blatantly violated. Among the many leaders to whom the appeal is addressed are Pope Francis, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, the head of Egypt's Coptic Church, Pope Tawadros as well as U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and U.N. human rights chief Volker Turk, the church said. Most Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to a separate branch of the faith, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formed four years ago by uniting branches independent of Moscow's authority.

☆ Ukraine orders Russian-aligned Orthodox church to leave Kyiv monastery
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-10 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

March 10 (Reuters) - Ukrainian officials on Friday ordered a historically Russian-aligned wing of the Orthodox Church to leave a monastery complex in Kyiv where it is based, the latest move against a denomination regarded with deep suspicion by the government. Kyiv is cracking down on the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) - which accepted the authority of the patriarch of Moscow until after Russia launched its full-scale invasion last year - on grounds that it is pro-Russian and collaborating with Moscow. The Ukrainian culture ministry said the UOC had been ordered to leave the 980-year-old Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery complex, where it has its headquarters. Authorities said they had found pro-Russian literature on church premises, and Russian citizens being harboured there, allegations the UOC denied. Most Ukrainian Orthodox believers belong to a separate branch of the faith, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine, formed four years ago by uniting branches independent of Moscow's authority.

☆ Christmas joy and anger for rival Orthodox churches in historic Kyiv monastery
▼ + stars: | 2023-01-07 | by ( Max Hunder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

It has become a focus of a bitter conflict between Ukraine's Orthodox communities, triggered by Russia's invasion. Members of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU), Ukraine's largest, piled into the cathedral's ornate interior on Saturday, to hear the first ever Ukrainian-language service in the cathedral. Ukraine's Orthodox Church, in its various iterations, has been subordinate to Moscow since the 17th century. The war, now in its eleventh month, has led many Ukrainians to rally round the OCU, which they see as more pro-Ukrainian than its rival, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC). That decision infuriated Russia's Orthodox Church, as Istanbul had previously recognised the UOC, then under Moscow's rule, as the legitimate Ukrainian church.

☆ Ukraine seeks ban on churches 'affiliated' with Russia
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-01 | by ( Dan Peleschuk | Max Hunder | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

KYIV, Dec 2 (Reuters) - The Ukrainian government will draw up a law banning churches affiliated with Russia under moves described by President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as necessary to prevent Moscow being able to "weaken Ukraine from within." The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) it said was searching at least five parishes belonging to a branch of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church which until May was subordinated to the Russian Orthodox Church. The branch has condemned Russia's invasion of Ukraine but many Ukrainians fear it could be a source of Russian influence in the country. "Therefore, the state of Ukraine does not have any legal grounds to put pressure on or repress our believers," he said. The Orthodox Church in Russia has lavishly backed the Kremlin's nine-month-old invasion of Ukraine.

☆ Putin's supporters call for the liquidation of Ukraine as 'genocidal rhetoric' swells
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-25 | by ( Holly Ellyatt | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +5 min

Alexander Nemenov | Afp | Getty ImagesProminent supporters of Russian President Vladimir Putin are using increasingly "genocidal rhetoric" when discussing and demonizing Ukrainians, analysts note, with some pro-war commentators cheering the concept of the "liquidation" of the modern state of Ukraine. "To be a 'Ukrainian' one does not even have to speak the Ukrainian language (which is also still being formed). "All this can be stopped only through the liquidation of Ukrainian statehood in its current form," Medvedev said. Another popular motif being used by pro-war, pro-Putin bloggers is characterizing Ukraine and Ukrainians as "evil" or "sadists" or "Satanists." "As ISW has previously reported, Russian President Vladimir Putin has similarly employed such genocidal language in a way that is fundamentally incompatible with calls for negotiations."

☆ Ukraine's security service raids Kyiv monastery, suspects Russian sabotage
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/4] Ukrainian law enforcement officers check documents of a visitor of the Kyiv Pechersk Lavra monastery, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine November 22, 2022. REUTERS/Valentyn OgirenkoKYIV, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Ukraine's SBU security service and police raided a 1,000-year-old Orthodox Christian monastery in Kyiv early on Tuesday as part of operations to counter suspected "subversive activities by Russian special services", the SBU said. The sprawling Kyiv Pechersk Lavra complex that was raided is a Ukrainian cultural treasure and the headquarters of the Russian-backed wing of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church known as the Moscow Patriarchate. "These measures are being taken ... as part of the systemic work of the SBU to counter the destructive activities of Russian special services in Ukraine," the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said in a statement. A 2020 survey by the Kyiv-based Razumkov Centre found that 34% of Ukrainians identified as members of the main Orthodox Church of Ukraine, while 14% were members of Ukraine's Moscow Patriarchate Church.

Russia launched an intense wave of airstrikes on cities across Ukraine on Tuesday, forcing widespread blackouts and hitting residential buildings in the capital, Kyiv. The barrage targeted key cities from Lviv in the west to Kharkiv in the northeast, pounding energy infrastructure and knocking out power to vast areas in one of the largest coordinated attacks of the war. "85 missile strikes were fired at Ukraine, at our cities, mostly at energy infrastructure. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said that the strikes should put an end to pressure for peace talks with Russia. While the retaking of Kherson sparked jubilation in Ukraine, officials have cautioned that the conflict is far from over and that Putin could retaliate for the humiliation of his forces' retreat in the south.

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