Plans to relocate religious relics from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery to the West make it clear that Ukraine is looked upon as a colony, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman said on Thursday.

Iran PressEurope: "It’s a tradition for colonial powers to behave like bandits toward the national and cultural heritages of the countries they view as their colonies. Undoubtedly, they consider Ukraine to be their colony, not just their fiefdom," Maria Zakharova pointed out.

According to Zakharova, stealing national valuable objects is typical of the West’s dealings with diverse regions around the world, and Western museums have turned into "repositories for stolen items."

According to Russia’s Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), the Kyiv authorities and UNESCO officials had reached an agreement to relocate Christian relics from the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv to museums in the Vatican, Germany, Italy, and France, citing the need "to save them from Russian missile attacks." 

211