former deputy cultural minister of lessia luta tells us that across the country many curators took shelternside with their collections. >> that's the situation of virtual every ukrainian museum. you can't have objects from the collection, museum, objects on display. they have to be secured. they have to be cared for. >> reporter: the installation hanging in this stairwell reminds us the war actually began in 2014 with putin's annexation of crimea, invasion of donbas, and an attempt to crush an independent nation, calling this greater russia, of lessia calls that absurd. >> i don't think this is ukrainian identity, that is a problem at all in this war. it's russia's identity. if russian identity is imperial, ukraine is essential part of it. >> right. >> but if you rethink russian identity as a non-imperial identity, then you do not need ukraine, baltic states within your well. >> that is the point of putin's war, to crush democracy, whose now world-famous flag was publicly raised in 1990, just ahead of independence. before that the soviets would have jailed anyone caught carry rg it. today,