100,000 costumes. 3 million items of clothing. Gone.
Last night, Russia struck the Oleksandr Dovzhenko National Film Studio in Kyiv — one of Ukraine's oldest film studios. A fire broke out. The costume workshop was hit directly. Ukraine's largest and oldest costume collection was destroyed.
These were not props. They were irreplaceable historical artefacts — clothing spanning centuries of Ukrainian history, culture, and identity. They cannot be restored. They cannot be reprinted. They are gone.
Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister for Humanitarian Policy and Minister of Culture Tetyana Berezhna:
"Russia continues to deliberately attack not only civilian infrastructure and peaceful people, but also cultural institutions that preserve Ukrainian identity, memory, and history. The destruction of cultural centres is an attempt to strike at the memory, history, and distinctiveness of the Ukrainian people."
The Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra — burning.
The organ hall in Dnipro — destroyed.
The Dovzhenko Film Studio costume collection — gone.
This is the same night. This is the same war. This is the same Russia.
People in the West who speak of Russian high culture should understand what that culture does when it is given weapons and coordinates.
It burns the costumes of other people's history.
Ukraine has been standing between this and the rest of Europe for four years.
Look at what it is holding back.
Source: Deputy Prime Minister Tetyana Berezhna, June 15, 2026
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