An Amsterdam appeals court has ruled that a trove of historical treasures
from Crimea that have been stored for years at a Dutch museum must be given
to Ukraine.

The court said that the artifacts are ``part of the cultural heritage of the
Ukrainian state.''

The judgment can be appealed to the Dutch Supreme Court.

Tuesday's ruling upheld a lower court's decision and was the latest
development in a protracted legal tug-of-war about the fate of the artifacts
that stems from Russia's annexation of Crimea.

Russia annexed the Crimean Peninsula in 2014, a month after the Allard
Pierson Museum opened the ``Crimea - Gold and secrets of the Black Sea''
exhibition, sparking a dispute over where the borrowed treasures should be
returned to.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on Twitter, hailing ``the
long-awaited victory`` and saying he was ``grateful to the court for a fair
decision.''