Ukrainian museum workers have reported that unique coins and silver bars dated back to Kyivan Rus will be put up for an auction in Moscow and stress the need to return them to Ukraine.

"The system of warning about the appearance of Ukrainian antique lots, which was launched a few years ago by the Museums of Ukraine magazine and our foreign partners, has worked. On February 9, the East European Antique House plans to sell a priceless collection of Kyivan Rus coins and silver bars. Very few such rarities have survived. Ukrainian museums have just a few artifacts of such kind," the magazine said.

Museum workers call on Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych and patriotic political forces to come to Moscow on February 9 without any fuss and buy the collection, then send it via diplomatic channels to Kyiv and hand over to a state museum with one condition to provide public access to it. "One needs only 1.5 million rubles, which is the price of a jeep," the magazine wrote.

"The Museums of Ukraine magazine officially addresses the president and the prime minister requesting them actually to intervene and return the artifacts," the magazine wrote.