The losses of the National Archival Fond of Ukraine as a result of Russia’s full-scale invasion are less than 2%, and approximately 0.3% of the destroyed or lost materials have been documented. The head of the State Archival Service of Ukraine, Anatolii Khromov, said in an interview with Interfax-Ukraine.
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According to him, despite the war, the main archival institutions at the regional level remain under Ukrainian control. The exception is the archives that have been under occupation since 2014: State Archives of Luhansk and Donetsk regions, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in Simferopol and the city of Sevastopol. In 2022, the State Archives of Kherson Oblast was partially looted. Initially, it was believed that the losses amounted to more than 50%, but current estimates suggest that the Russians seized about 40% of the funds.
Khromov noted that the situation in Ukrainian archives is much better than during the Second World War, when Ukraine lost up to half of its documents. He emphasised that effective evacuation measures helped to preserve most of the fonds, despite the fact that more than 30 cases of damage to archival buildings due to rocket attacks and shelling were recorded.
Deputy Minister of Justice Viktoriia Vasylchuk noted that it is still impossible to accurately estimate the financial losses of the archival sector and the funds needed for restoration. She stressed that the assessment of archival documents is a complex process, as not all of them are insured. The Ministry of Justice, together with the State Archival Service, is developing a methodology for assessing losses and compensation for damaged and lost archival materials.
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