Head of the State Archival Service of Ukraine Anatoliy Khromov says that after the victory in the war, it will be possible to raise the issue of returning to Ukraine archival documents that Russia exported in imperial and Soviet times.

"Our sphere, like the whole country, depends on the outcome of the war. If there is a victory, if there are reparations, we hope for the solution of problematic issues. Moreover, Russia exported in imperial and Soviet times our documents, which were created on our territory, but taken to the center. If there is really a victory for Ukraine, then we can raise the question of the return of our cultural heritage, illegally exported in past periods," Khromov said in an exclusive interview with Interfax-Ukraine.

Also, according to him, the decision to impose sanctions on 15 individuals and seven legal entities for actual acts or for attempting to steal or illegally use archival documents on Crimea and certain districts of Donetsk and Luhansk regions is at the final stage.

"We were preparing this before the war, because these people should have been punished for a long time, but a full-scale war has expanded this list. We looked at how some individuals, institutions and organizations showed up, and added new proposals to the sanctions list," he added.

Among other things, the head of the State Archive said that the agency had terminated the cooperation agreement with Russia, and currently plans to terminate cooperation agreements with the archives of the Republic of Belarus, as well as a number of agreements in the archival industry within the CIS.

"In addition, we are doing everything to isolate the Russian and Belarusian archives in the international arena. In particular, on our initiative, the International Council of Archives, which is such an Archival UN, terminated the membership of all representatives from these two states in its institutions. That is, any cooperation with them is impossible until, as indicated in the resolution, until a peace agreement is signed on terms that meet the interests of the legitimate government of Ukraine," Khromov summed up.