Deputy Minister of Justice Viktoriya Vasylchuk suggests that Ukraine may raise the issue of the return of archival documents that Russia took during the imperial and Soviet periods.
"We are considering this issue with the State Archival Service from different perspectives. They give a brief and clear answer - 'yes.' As lawyers, we tried to approach this a bit differently, analyzing the problem from a legal point of view. However, overall, we agree that there is certainly potential in such cases," Vasylchuk said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine, responding to the question of whether Ukraine intends to raise the issue of returning archival documents taken by Russia during imperial and Soviet times after victory.
She explained that when Ukraine was part of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), an agreement was signed according to which all documents stored at the time of signing in the respective states belonged to the funds of those states.
"But this was until the moment Ukraine left this association. Therefore, now we can no longer consider ourselves bound by this norm. And potentially, we may address such claims in the future, and we see prospects in this, especially if it concerns particularly valuable and significant documents for Ukraine that are foundational to our history and culture," emphasized the Deputy Minister.
As reported, in 2022, Head of the State Archival Service Anatoliy Khromov stated that after victory in the war, the issue of returning archival documents taken by Russia during imperial and Soviet times could be raised.
