“Ukrainians of Moscow” regional NGO claims about destruction of the unique newspaper fund of the Library of Ukrainian Literature in Moscow.

According to the organization’s press-service, the fund destruction began on 19 November on the order of library director Natalia Sharina, without drawing any legal documents.

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According to the information of the press-service, the fund included annual complete sets of Ukrainian newspapers for 1998-2006 years: “Demokratychna Ukrayina”, “Holos Ukrayiny”, “Uryadovyi Kuryer”, “2000”, “Den”, “Zerkalo Nedeli”, “Literaturna Ukrayina”, “Kultura I Zhyzn”, and the like.

Several rare copies of Ukrainian newspaper of XIX-XX centuries, newspapers of the Ukrainian diaspora and other countries, “Ukrayinskiy Oglyad” magazine, which was published for many years by Russian and Ukrainian publicist O.Rudenko-Desnyak, were wiped out.

According to the press-service, “the criminal action was perpetrated early in the morning, before Ukrainians – employees of the library came to work. N.Sharina and her deputy Bespalko personally loaded the newspapers into a truck, which removed it in an unknown direction”.

The press-service emphasizes that the mentioned-above complete sets of newspapers are absent in  all other libraries of Russia. A significant part of them is of a big historical and cultural importance for the Russian Federation.

“The Ukrainian community regards this action as an undisguised anti-Ukrainian aggression, which indicates disrespect to the Ukrainian culture and Ukrainians”, the NGO points out. They turn attention to the fact that the library’s fund was destroyed just two days after “young Eurasians” tried to smash up the exhibition, devoted to Ukrainian Holodomor, in Moscow.