Prosecutor General charges Russian general in absentia for bombing museum dedicated to 18th century Ukrainian philosopher

On October 29, the Prosecutor General announced charges against a Russian lieutenant general for ordering the bombing of a museum in Ukraine. The attack took place on May 6, 2022, when a missile struck the museum in the village of Skovorodynivka, located 55 kilometers from Kharkiv. The museum, dedicated to 18th-century Ukrainian philosopher Hryhorii Skovoroda, was left in serious disrepair but not completely destroyed.

The lieutenant general, who commands Russia's 6th Guards Air and Air Defense Forces Army, is originally from the village of Chuhuiv in Kharkiv Oblast. Despite knowing he was targeting a cultural monument, not a military facility, he gave the order to destroy the building. Skovoroda, considered one of the most influential philosophers in Ukrainian intellectual history, spent his final years in the estate where the museum was located before his death in 1794.

Russia has repeatedly targeted Ukraine's cultural heritage since the beginning of the full-scale war, with 2,161 cultural heritage sites and 2,665 cultural institutions damaged or destroyed as of September 2026 according to Culture Ministry data.