The icons of Stephen the Great, whose disappearance from the museum in Kherson was announced by the Romanian and Ukrainian authorities at the beginning of November, were found in Kherson, but all the icons in the museum of the Ukrainian city “were stolen by the Russian aggressor,” Culture Minister Lucian Romaškanu said on Monday.

Romashkanu wrote on Facebook that after a new conversation on Saturday with the Minister of Culture of Ukraine Oleksandr Tkatsenko, he learned that paintings by Stephen the Great were found in Kherson.

The Minister of Culture says that “the paintings are intact and safe”, adding a photo of them.

According to Romashkan, unfortunately, all the icons of the museum in Kherson “were stolen by the Russian aggressor, a cultural crime that is repeated everywhere the Russian army reached Ukraine.”

“I discussed with Minister Tkatsenko the possibility of evacuating books and other exhibits to Romania to keep them safe until the end of the conflict. We are waiting for the decision of Ukrainian officials, we are ready to help,” added the Minister of Culture.

At the beginning of April, Romashkanu reported that he had discussed with his Ukrainian colleague Oleksandr Tkachenko the possible theft of Shefan chel Maredin’s paintings from the Kherson museum by the Russian occupying forces.

Moldovan Easter eggs of Stephen the Great, 15th-century artifacts taken from the walls of the White Citadel on the Dniester, were allegedly stolen from a museum in Kherson and taken to Crimea by Putin’s army, Anatoly Popescu, then president and founder of the Association of Romanians of Southern Bessarabia, reported Digi24.

In 1838, during the time of the tsarist administration, one or two Pisans were torn from the walls of the fortress and taken to the Odessa Museum, he explained.

“During the Romanian administration in the interwar period, at least one was still on the walls. Romanian archaeologists of the interwar period conducted research, but they were lost in the 50s and nothing was known until 2013, when they were discovered by Andrii Krasnozhon in a museum in Kherson,” said Anatoly Popescu.

Scriptures are plates with Slavic inscriptions on the walls of the fortress, which testify to the events.