© 2025 National Museum of the History of Ukraine in the Second World War. Memorial complex.
Exhibitions / Current

Ukraine – Crucifixion

8 May 2022

“Ukraine – Crucifixion”

Opening date: May 8, 2022

For the first time in global museum practice, a permanent exhibition has been created that tells the story of russia’s large-scale invasion. The real aggression of the russian federation is presented through original artifacts and photographs.

After the liberation of the temporarily occupied territories of the Kyiv and Chernihiv regions in early April 2022, museum workers embarked on an expedition to the devastated cities of Irpin and Bucha, the towns of Borodianka, Hostomel, and Makariv, and the villages of Mykhailivka-Rubezhivka, Andriivka, Lypivka, Makovyshche, Stoianka, Lukianivka, Peremoha, and others.

One of the exhibition’s focal exhibits is the icon “The Descent from the Cross”, which has a fragment of a russian mine embedded in it. This icon was taken from the enemy-damaged Church of St. Dimitry of Rostov in the town of Makariv in the Kyiv region.

For this exhibition, the museum received high international honors, including special jury awards at the Museums + Heritage Awards (London, UK) and the European Museum Award from the European Museum Academy (Timișoara, Romania). It was also nominated for the European Museum of the Year Award – 2024 by the European Museum Forum (Portimão, Portugal).

Team of the project:

Author of idea and curator – Yurii Savchuk

Artists – Anton Logov, Anatolii Musiyenko

Coordinators – Oksana Yankovenko, Iryna Kotsabiuk

Research – Oleksandr Bilous, Yaroslava Pasichko, Volodymyr Tretiak, Iryna Yermolaieva, Tetiana Pohorila, Vita Pchola, Bohdan Halchynskyi, Zlatko Zlatanov, Serhii Sudynovych, Anatolii Dudar, Maksym Milevskyi, Svitlana Shman, Svitlana Demchenko

Texts – Volodymyr Simperovych, Andrii Solonets

Audio and video content – Svitlana Datsenko, Oleksandr Pasternak, Oleksandr Ocheretianyi

Restoration – Iryna Rudenko, Ivan Kolesnyk, Yulia Penzina, Tetiana Yavorska

Public communication – Zhanna Ocheretiana, Anastasia Yevhlevska

Translation – Dmytro Hainetdinov, Oleksandr Pasternak

Text editor – Yurii Bedryk

Excursion management – Dmytro Hainetdinov

Photographers – Viktor Byvshev, Andrzej Markiewicz

Graphic design – Andrii Moiseienko, Olha Moskovchenko

Technical support:

Information technologies – Andrii Artemenko, Andrii Zahrebelnyi, Serhii Bilohub

Lighting – Valerii Borovyk, Hennadii Umanets

Installation – Yan Denenfeld, Valerii Shevchuk, Kostiantyn Davii, Kostiantyn Perebyinis, Stepan Karas, Mykhailo Nahornyi

Administrative work – Valentyna Bolila

Maintenance:

Oleh Ivashchenko, Maksym Shevchuk, Roman Doilnitsyn, Petro Petrenko, Serhii Chernenko, Valerii Dolbnia, Oleh Borysenko, Kostiantyn Lebid, Artem Zaporozhets, Vladyslav Bovsunovskyi, Olena Shekhovtsova, Tetiana Artemenko, Liudmyla Hudz, Svitlana Tkalich, Tetiana Besiedina, Natalia Levadniuk, Svitlana Tetiura