Inside the ghost museums of Ukraine: exhibits replaced by fragments of war and occupation

The curators of shattered historical buildings near the eastern frontline are preserving wartime memories as they reconstruct their collections

The museum of local history in the eastern Ukrainian town of Izium has, like the community around it, endured much since Russia’s full-scale invasion of the country.

When Izium was bitterly fought over in early 2022 at the start of the Russian assault, the 19th-century building suffered two direct hits from missiles that blew out the roof and led to flood damage. Under occupation from March to September 2022, a Russian guard was posted on the door – but invaders never transported its collection any deeper behind Russian lines, or found the rare early 18th-century volume of the gospels – one of only three of its type – that museum workers had spirited away and hidden.