Ukraine sanctions Russia’s pavilion

Ukraine didn’t just protest Russia’s return to the Venice Biennale. On April 9, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy signed Decree No. 305/2026, turning that protest into sanctions on five people tied to the Russian pavilion. (president.gov.ua, mincult.gov.ua) The target was not a museum building in Venice but the people running and appearing in Russia’s project at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Ukraine’s Culture Ministry said the sanctions were proposed by the ministry and approved through the National Security and Defense Council. (mincult.gov.ua, president.gov.ua) This fight started when Russia’s pavilion was put back on the Biennale map for 2026 after sitting out the 2022 and 2024 editions. ARTnews reported on March 3 that Russia would reopen the pavilion in May, and the Biennale runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026. (artnews.com, euronews.com) Russia’s own pitch made the politics hard to miss. Mikhail Shvydkoy, Russia’s delegate for international cultural exchanges and a former culture minister, said the reopening showed Russian culture was “not isolated” and that attempts to “cancel” it had failed. (artnews.com, pravda.com.ua) The project itself is called “The Tree Is Rooted in the Sky,” and Ukraine says it involves more than 50 participants. Russian organizers described it as a multilingual performance by musicians, poets, and philosophers from Russia and other countries. (mincult.gov.ua, artnews.com) Ukraine’s argument is that this is not culture floating above war like a cloud. Culture Minister Tetyana Berezhna said Russia’s participation is “not a neutral cultural act” but an information operation meant to “normalize the aggressor” while the war continues. (mincult.gov.ua) That argument has been building for weeks. On March 8, Ukraine’s foreign minister Andrii Sybiha and Berezhna issued a joint statement saying the Biennale must not become a stage for whitewashing Russian war crimes, and they tied that claim to damage inside Ukraine: 1,707 cultural heritage sites damaged or destroyed and direct losses above $4.2 billion. (mincult.gov.ua) Pressure also spread beyond Kyiv. Ukraine’s Culture Ministry said 22 European countries sent a letter asking Biennale leaders to reconsider Russia’s participation, while the European Commission publicly condemned the decision to let Russia reopen its pavilion. (mincult.gov.ua, ec.europa.eu) The Biennale’s position is narrower than Ukraine’s. Its press office told reporters that La Biennale di Venezia does not choose which nations participate and that countries decide for themselves whether to take part. (pravda.com.ua, euronews.com) So the sanctions do two jobs at once. They punish five named Russian cultural figures, and they tell every visitor, curator, and government arriving in Venice in May that this year’s Biennale will not be able to pretend national pavilions are just rooms full of art. (president.gov.ua, mincult.gov.ua, euronews.com)