Tkachenko accused the mayor of Mariupol of refusing to evacuate museum collections
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The former head of the Ministry of Culture, Oleksandr Tkachenko, insists that cultural values from southern museums were prevented from being evacuated by local government officials and, in some cases, by museum managers themselves. In an interview with BBC Ukraine, he stated that the mayor of Mariupol, Vadym Boychenko, refused to evacuate the city’s museums before the start of a full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. “On the 23rd, when we just saw on YouTube how Mariupol stores were being robbed, I called the leadership of the city and region just in case and said: “Look, you probably have people who know something that we don’t. Let’s do something with the museum.” We had a very heated discussion with the mayor of Mariupol, who did not want to do it. And this is a communal institution, not under our control,” Tkachenko said. According to him, he then agreed with the head of the regional administration to prepare an order for preventive evacuation. “But it turned out that we cannot issue such orders without martial law. And there was no martial law on February 23,” added the ex-chief of the MKIP. Tkachenko assured that it was possible to do something the very next day: “On the 24th, there were already tanks in the South, near Kherson.” Kuindzhi Museum in Mariupol in March 2022. Photo: Oleksandr Gore Tkachenko, in an interview with UP.Zhyttia, accused the Mariupol authorities of not evacuating local museums. Then the city hall rejected these accusations. In particular, the adviser to the mayor of Mariupol, Petro Andryushchenko, denied this, noting that the first cases of looting in the city were recorded on March 4: “I have not felt such disgust for being transferred from a sick head to a healthy one for a long time… I would like to see at least one piece of paper for him (Tkachenko. – Ed.) with a signature that would order the evacuation of Mariupol’s valuables in violation of the requirements for the movement of valuables approved by the ministry.” Later, in an interview with the BBC, the former Minister of Culture and Information Policy clarified that with some representatives of the museum industry “I had to swear in high tones.” “We have a profile deputy, Kateryna Chuyeva, she called museum directors. And yes, there were very often quite dramatic, high-pitched conversations about this,” he said. Tkachenko explained that in his position as a minister, he met “different attitudes of people who are entrusted with the preservation of museum values.” “Museumists in general have a hard time parting with the things they have in museums. On the one hand, this is a misunderstanding, on the other hand, there is a reluctance to change something, hiding behind imaginary reasons. But in the vast majority, the directors of institutions, museums, regional leadership, security forces, volunteers are very active helped this process,” added the excursor of the Ministry of Culture. On the other hand, the director of the Kherson Art Museum, Alina Dotsenko, said in an interview with UP.Zhyttya that “Communication with the Ministry of Culture did not work out – there was no such thing as moving the funds somewhere. So on February 24, the exhibits were in the museum.” Oleksandr Tkachenko was appointed Minister of Culture and Information Policy on June 4, 2020. On November 11, 2021, Tkachenko wrote a resignation letter due to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers to separate the State Cinema from the MKIP and the culture budget for 2022. In the end, Tkachenko remained in office. In June of this year, a petition with a call to initiate the dismissal of the Minister of Culture and Information Policy Oleksandr Tkachenko gained the necessary 25,000 signatures for consideration. But Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that there are no grounds for Tkachenko’s dismissal. Read also: We are not looking for a dialogue with Tkachenko, but demand his resignation. In an evening address on July 20, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy suggested to Denys Shmyhal to find a replacement for Tkachenko for the post of Minister of Culture and Information Policy. A few hours later, Tkachenko announced that he submitted Shmyhalyu’s “resignation statement due to a wave of misunderstanding regarding the importance of culture during the war” to Zelenskyi’s request. On July 26, the Verkhovna Rada’s Committee on Humanitarian and Information Policy did not support Oleksandr Tkachenko’s resignation from the position of Minister of Culture and Information Policy. However, the very next day, July 27, the parliament voted for Tkachenko’s resignation. Read also: Minister Tkachenko’s mistakes. Or which Ministry of Culture we don’t need
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