Curators saving Ukraine’s heritage at all costs

When she understood Russian troops were advancing in the region of Zaporizhzhia, Natalya Chergik helped to fill a truck with a ton of paintings, antique firearms and 17th-century ceramics.

"We drove 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) in five days. The trip was awful, planes were flying over us and we did not even know if they were Ukrainian or not," she recounts.

"The hardest part for us was to convince people at checkpoints not to search the artwork and to let the truck through as quickly as possible."

Chergik is a curator at Khortytsia, a museum-island in the Dnipro river of around 30 square kilometers (11.6 square miles) that was a base for Ukrainian Cossacks from the 16th century.

It was the home of the first Zaporizhzhian "Sich" - a type of Cossack state ruled by direct democracy that remained in place until 1775 when Russian empress Catherine the Great destroyed it.

This is a "sacred place for the history of Ukraine," said Maksym Ostapenko, the 51-year-old head of the Khortytsia reserve, an important Ukrainian cultural center that houses, among others, dozens of historical artefacts found during archaeological excavations over the years.

Ostapenko and most of his colleagues joined the Ukrainian army in the early days of the invasion. But that does not mean they abandoned their museum.

"To tell you the truth, we outlined an evacuation plan in 2014, after Crimea was annexed" by Russia, said Ostapenko.

Curators drew up a list of "the most precious artwork, of about 100 pieces that would need to be evacuated first, in the event of danger."

"Cultural heritage cannot be rebuilt. We have to take precautions," said the director.

As early as Feb. 23, two days after Russian President Vladimir Putin gave a...