Statement by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on Russia’s attempts to use the Bagçesaray Palace of the Crimean Khans (Crimea, Ukraine) for propaganda purposes

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine expresses its strong protest against the planned series of public events to be held on 31 October – 1 November 2026 on the premises of the Bagçesaray Palace of the Crimean Khans. These events are intended to publicly glorify the criminal policies of the Russian Empire, which in the XIX century led to the forced displacement of hundreds of thousands of Crimean Tatars from their homeland – Crimea. The Bagçesaray Palace of the Crimean Khans is a cultural and historical site of outstanding universal significance, included by Ukraine on the UNESCO World Heritage Tentative List. 

The Russian Federation continues to wage a systematic war against the Crimean Tatar people, their culture, historical memory and world cultural heritage. The occupying authorities’ criminal actions are being documented through the monitoring conducted by UNESCO in temporarily occupied Crimea since 2014.

It is particularly telling that, by organizing such propaganda events, the Russian aggressors are seeking not merely to justify, but also to glorify their past and present crimes.

These cynical actions by the aggressor state are taking place against the backdrop of the ongoing so-called “restoration” of the Palace of Khans in occupied Bagçesaray, which is further deteriorating the condition of this landmark of Crimean Tatar architecture and has already resulted in a number of instances of damage.

Ukraine has already officially informed UNESCO’s leadership and the Member States of the Organization about Russia’s criminal intentions in temporarily occupied Bagçesaray.

We call upon Director-General of UNESCO, the relevant bodies of the Organization and its Member States to immediately deploy all available international instruments to put an end to the Russian Federation’s practices, as the occupying power in Crimea, of turning cultural heritage sites of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people into instruments of imperial propaganda and of justifying and glorifying occupation.

We call upon UNESCO to:

- provide a clear and principled assessment of Russia’s propaganda activities in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea;

- strengthen international mechanisms for the protection of Ukraine’s and the Crimean Tatar people’s cultural heritage;

- consider strengthening accountability measures against the Russian Federation for its systematic destruction of Ukraine’s cultural heritage, which bears the hallmarks of war crime. 

Russia must be held accountable for the cultural genocide it is perpetrating in order to justify its colonial policies.