Cultural figures, activists demand resignation of the Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications Tochytsky – open letter

Cultural figures and civil society activists have appealed to Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal to demand the resignation of Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications Mykola Tochytsky "due to his managerial helplessness and inefficiency, in particular regarding the preservation of Ukraine's cultural heritage."

"The minister's inaction regarding the evacuation of the state museum fund, the personnel appointments of incompetent managers in the field of cultural heritage (namely, Serhiy Belyaev, Deputy Minister of Cultural Heritage, and Volodymyr Shornikov, Director of the Department of Protection and Preservation of Cultural Heritage), the groundlessness of management decisions regarding the dismissal of heads of institutions, inefficient planning of budget financing and the use of donor assistance, and the opaque communication of the activities of the ICSC (main central executive body responsible for culture, media, information, and publishing policy in Ukraine) to a loss of trust and respect for the state administration body in the field of culture in society and possible losses of human resources, cultural heritage objects, and the state museum fund," the open letter published on Tuesday states.

As of 3:00 p.m., the letter had been signed by about 90 cultural figures.

The open letter emphasizes that the dismissal of the Director General of the National Reserve Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra "clearly demonstrates the violations committed by the minister and his subordinates."

The signatories reproach the minister with public incitement to criminal acts - incitement and abuse of power, deliberate disregard of duties, unethical behavior, ineffective policy of financing the preservation of cultural heritage, deliberate misleading the public and manipulating facts, incompetence and failure to ensure the conduct of competitions.

"We, the undersigned, demand the resignation of the Minister of Culture and Strategic Communications, the dismissal of officials responsible for destructive activities in the sphere of cultural heritage preservation, and the resumption of the procedure for competitions for the positions of heads of cultural institution.

As reported, on May 22 it became known that the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine dismissed the General Director of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra Reserve, Ostapenko. Later, the Ministry of Culture announced that Ostapenko was dismissed from his post due to improper fulfillment of the terms of the contract and due to violations identified in the activities of the reserve. In particular, violations such as an illegal coffee shop in the House of the Lavra Governor, as well as the implementation of finishing and repair work without the approval of the ministry were mentioned. In addition, Tochytsky stated that the dismissal of the Lavra General Director is a response to the weak position in implementing the law on the ban on religious organizations associated with Russia.

Later, the Ministry of Culture announced that the acting general director of the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra reserve had appointed Kotlyarevska as deputy general director for the provision of paid services.

In turn, Ostapenko stated that he would appeal the decision of the Minister of Culture to dismiss him in court.