The President of Ukraine has imposed sanctions against thieves of resources and cultural values from TOT
On August 4, the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskyi, signed two decrees that introduced sanctions against persons involved in the illegal export of resources and cultural values from the temporarily occupied territories. About this informs Vladyslav Vlasyuk, the President’s authorized officer for sanctions policy.
Decree №579/2025 concerns the so-called package “Stealers of assets from TOT” and includes individuals and companies that, according to the investigation, are involved in the export of stolen Ukrainian grain, illegal mining of minerals and transportation of looted products.
In particular, Captain Vyacheslav Vidanov appears in the investigations, who, as stated, exported more than 35,000 tons of Ukrainian wheat from occupied Sevastopol to Yemen. The company “Dniprorudnensky Iron Ore Combine”, created on the basis of seized Ukrainian assets in the Zaporizhia region, is also included in the list of legal entities.
The second decree №580/2025 concerns 15 persons involved in the illegal appropriation of Ukrainian cultural values and the integration of occupied museums into the Russian cultural infrastructure. Among those featured are the director of the Russian Ethnographic Museum, Yulia Kupina, who opened the “Multinational Russia” exhibition in occupied Berdyansk with exhibits from Ukrainian collections, as well as Artem Silkin and Galina Alekseeva, who are applying for positions in the International Council of Museums (ICOM) — the participation of these individuals in international organizations is considered unacceptable by Ukraine.
“The purpose of the application of sanctions is also to prevent the election of the specified persons to the governing bodies of the International Council of Museums (ICSM) in November 2025 in Dubai (Artem Mykolayovych Silkin and Galina Alekseeva Galina Vasylivna are running for office from the Russian Federation)”, — noted Vladyslav Vlasyuk.
