PM instructed to make inventory of Ukrainian special funds that possess cultural values

Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman has ordered Vice Prime Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Rozenko and Minister of Culture of Ukraine Yevhen Nyschuk to carry out an audit of special funds of Ukraine that have cultural values.

"I would like today to entrust Vice Premier Minister Pavlo Rozenko along with the Minister of Culture to examine the issue of the public and qualitative inventory process so that all Ukrainian citizens know what the State possesses, what is available, and what, unfortunately, has been stolen or appropriated," stated Volodymyr Groysman, opening a Government’s sitting on Wednesday, 18 May.

The Prime Minister noted that this week the oldest Ukrainian national spiritual book "The Apostle" of Ivan Fedorov was stolen from the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine. "As far as I understand, this is not the first case when rare unique works that are the property of the Ukrainian people have disappeared from our special funds," he noted.

"The time has come when we have to carry out a meticulous inventory of everything we have, to understand what has been lost and what has been done in order to return these special funds," underlined Volodymyr Groysman.

This analysis will allow us to streamline the information and return "everything that was stolen from the property of the State and the Ukrainian people," noted the Prime Minister.

The Prime Minister has also urged to involve public and MPs of Ukraine to the work of an inventory group in order to ensure its impartiality.

Volodymyr Groysman said that a thorough analysis should be undertaken not in all, but in a few, two or three funds.