Three swords believed to date back to the fifth or sixth century BC were confiscated by US Customs and Border Protection last year and handed over to the Ukrainian government during a repatriation ceremony at the Ukrainian embassy in Washington on March 10, the Embassy said..

The weapons on display at the embassy are stolen artifacts shipped from Russia and seized by US Customs and Border Protection officials at John F. Kennedy International Airport. Specialists of the Institute of Archeology of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine dated the swords to the fifth or sixth century BC, and the polished flint ax head to the third century BC.

According to representatives of the customs and border service, the name of the importer is known, this person planned to send such items on a regular basis.

Artifacts collected at the Ukrainian embassy on Friday are just the first of more than 20 packages that came from a single sender from Russia's Krasnodar region, bordering the temporarily occupied Crimean peninsula, according to Ukrainian diplomats.. All of them were intercepted by customs officers between July and September last year, work is underway to find out if they originate from Ukraine.

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As you know, after the invasion of Ukraine, Russian troops looted museums, art galleries and cathedrals in the occupied territories.. Some experts have called it the greatest robbery since the Nazis plundered Europe during World War II.. According to Human Rights Watch, at least 10 thousand works of art were stolen from the Kherson Regional Art Museum during the occupation.