The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine continues to document the damage to cultural infrastructure objects in Ukraine because of the full-scale russian aggression. As of December 25, 2023, 1907 objects of cultural infrastructure (including cultural institutions subordinate to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy and other central executive authorities) have suffered losses, excluding cultural heritage sites. Among them, 306 (16%) have been completely destroyed.
The overall losses for cultural institutions in state ownership are 23 objects (9%), and for institutions in communal ownership, the losses amount to 1884 objects (6%).
The cultural infrastructure has suffered the most significant losses and damages in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions, as well as in Kyiv city.
The most numerous category of cultural infrastructure objects that have suffered damage or destruction is creative hubs, accounting for 48% of the total number of cultural infrastructure institutions that incurred losses.
In total, the following cultural infrastructure institutions have been affected:
– Creative hubs: 923
– Libraries: 681
– Institutions of art education: 145
– Museums and galleries: 106
– Theaters, cinemas, and philharmonics: 35
– Parks, zoos, reserves: 14
– Circuses: 3
Cultural infrastructure objects have experienced damage and destruction in 274 territorial communities, which constitutes 18.7% of the total number of territorial communities in Ukraine. Specifically, the impact is notable in the Donetsk (83%), Sumy (53%), Kharkiv (52%), Luhansk (46%), Chernihiv (46%), Mykolaiv (44%), Kherson (43%), Zaporizhzhia (36%), Kyiv (26%), Dnipropetrovsk (19%), Zhytomyr (17%), Khmelnytskyi (15%), Odesa (9%), Cherkasy (6%), Lviv (4%), Vinnytsia (3%), Zakarpattia (2%), Kirovohrad (2%), Poltava (2%) regions, and Kyiv city.
It is worth noting that as of the end of December 2023, almost the entire territory of Luhansk and significant parts of the territories of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk regions are still under temporary occupation. This makes it impossible to calculate the exact number of cultural infrastructure objects that have suffered during the hostilities and occupation.
