Ukraine’s museums keep watch over priceless gold in bid to halt Russian looters

Experts monitoring the loss of Scythian artefacts have been shocked at scale of theft by Putin’s forces

The people the Greeks called Scythians were formidable warriors and nomads who dominated the Eurasian steppe for more than 1,000 years from about 800BC – long before the creation of national borders.

The fabulous gold weapons and ornaments they left behind ended up in museums across the region, many of them in Ukraine. Since Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February, however, much Scythian gold – along with millions of other priceless artefacts – has been looted or “evacuated”.