Russian and Iranian drones, cruise missiles, helicopter debris and a destroyed aid vehicle are among the exhibits illustrating the tragic reality of everyday life in Ukraine during Russia’s all-out war of aggression, now entering its fifth year.
The Berlin Story Bunker, an organization known for its history tours of Nazi-era air raid shelters, is now opening what director Enno Lenze says is the world’s first museum of its kind.
Displaying the largest collection of Ukraine war artefacts outside the country and housed in a former World War II bunker, the Ukraine Museum spans 300 square metres and focuses on “personal stories, the brutality of the war, and everything Russia wants to keep secret.”
“We are not offering an academic analysis, but showing Russia’s brutal energy of destruction,” say the curators of the museum, opening in February with texts provided in English and German.
Exhibits are set to change regularly, and the curation team say they travel to Ukraine monthly to bring back new objects and information. One part of the museum focuses on a painful dilemma that has faced many since the start of Russia’s all-out invasion: leave Ukraine or stay?
Oleg Degusarov, survivor of a Russian drone attack on an aid van, joined a press event ahead of the museum’s launch to narrate the story of how he was severely injured and a passenger was killed in the strike. The targeted Fiat Scudo van, which was helping victims of bombings, is now in the museum bearing a gaping hole from the drone attack.
On the first anniversary of Russia’s assault on Ukraine, the Berlin Story Bunker team placed a destroyed Russian tank in front of Russia’s embassy in Berlin.
The T-72 tank wreck remained on Berlin’s central Unter den Linden boulevard, near the well-known Brandenburg Gate, for several days in 2023 as a memorial against the war.
dpa
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