Former Crimean Prime Minister Valerii Horbatov, whose unique archaeological collection was found by law enforcement officers, wants to return to Ukraine. In early December, he reached an agreement with investigators and agreed to donate the collection to the state, and now he wants to help restore it.
This was stated in an interview with Babel by prosecutor Serhiy Chaplyan, who was handling the case of the former prime minister, and his lawyer Oleksiy Vorobyov.
The investigation has been ongoing since April 2022, and law enforcement officers found the unique collection in June when they searched the office of Horbatovʼs wife in Kyiv. In five days, 6000 artifacts were found there, and in a year, another thousand.
The State Bureau of Investigation then opened a case of paying taxes in the occupied territory, overthrowing the constitutional order, and justifying Russiaʼs armed aggression.
Horbatov himself did not contact the investigation until the spring of 2025. Then his lawyer wrote an appeal to the State Bureau of Investigation, stating that he denied any involvement in collaborationism and that he had inherited part of the collection from his grandfather. Chaplyan met with the lawyer, after which Horbatov offered to transfer the collection to the state.
"He handed over everything he had to the state, almost eight thousand items. That is, not only what we found during the searches. For example, a gilded Old Russian helmet. There are no such things in museums in Ukraine. Those that were found earlier in the Chernihiv region were taken to Moscow. This is a sensation for Ukraine. The only thing is, the helmet is in very poor condition, someone needs to finance its restoration," the prosecutor says.
Horbatov is currently in hospital in Cyprus, having undergone heart surgery and awaiting another operation. Chaplyan is convinced that the former Crimean premierʼs health is one of the reasons why he decided to dispose of the collection in this way.
Horbatovʼs lawyer claims that he also bought artifacts at antique markets and online auctions. According to him, Horbatov will undergo post-operative rehabilitation by the spring of 2026, after which he will return to Ukraine to study the artifacts with specialists from the Historical Museum and finance their restoration.
Chaplyan added that the investigation currently has no grounds to suspect Horbatov of paying taxes in the "DPR" and occupied Crimea, withdrawing money to Russia, and having anything to do with the overthrow of the constitutional order.
Former Prosecutor General Iryna Venedyktova said that documents were found in Horbatovʼs possession that confirmed the accusations of collaborationism. According to Chaplyan, almost all the documents found date back to the period before 2014. The later documents are related to the need to provide advice to businesses that remained in the occupied territory.
- Horbatov headed the Council of Ministers of Crimea from 2001 to 2022, and was a peopleʼs deputy from 1994 to 2006. On the eve of the full-scale invasion, he fled to the occupied territories.
- During searches of his offices, Scythian Akinak swords, spears, axes, arrows, coins, 12th-century chain mail, Hellenistic helmets, and dishes from the Trypillia culture were found. The collection is estimated to be worth several million dollars.
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