The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine continues to document damage to cultural infrastructure in Ukraine as a result of the full-scale russian aggression. According to information provided by regional and Kyiv city military administrations, the total number of damaged cultural institutions increased by 49 objects in September. The most affected cultural institutions are located in the Kharkiv, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Sumy regions.
As of September 25, 2024, a total of 2,093 cultural institutions (including those under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications and other central executive bodies) have been damaged, excluding cultural heritage sites; of these, 361 have been destroyed (17.25%).
The losses of state-owned cultural institutions amounted to 37 objects (14% of the total number of institutions in the national basic network), while 2,056 objects of communal ownership were affected (6% of the total number of institutions in the local basic network).
The largest group of cultural institutions that have suffered damage or destruction are creative hubs, accounting for 48.2% of the total number of damaged cultural infrastructure institutions.
Overall, the following have been affected:
- Creative hubs — 1,007;
- Libraries — 746;
- Art education institutions — 162;
- Museums and galleries — 120;
- Theaters, cinemas, and philharmonic halls — 38;
- Parks, zoos, and reserves — 16;
- Circuses — 4.
Cultural institutions in 296 territorial communities (20% of the total number of ATCs) have been damaged, particularly in the Vinnytsia (3.2%), Dnipropetrovsk (20%), Donetsk (87%), Zhytomyr (17%), Zakarpattia (2%), Zaporizhzhia (40.3%), Kirovohrad (2%), Kyiv (27.1%), Luhansk (46.2%), Lviv (5.5%), Mykolaiv (44.2%), Odesa (9.9%), Poltava (2%), Sumy (62.7%), Kharkiv (58.9%), Kherson (43%), Khmelnytskyi (17%), Cherkasy (6.1%), Chernihiv (49%) regions, and Kyiv city.
As of the end of September 2024, nearly the entire territory of Luhansk and significant parts of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson regions remain under temporary occupation, making it impossible to calculate the exact number of cultural institutions affected by the fighting and occupation.
