The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine is documenting damage to cultural infrastructure caused by the ongoing Russian aggression. 2,156 cultural infrastructure objects, including those under the Ministry and other government bodies, have been affected, with 382 completely destroyed (17.7%), as of December 25, 2024.
Cultural infrastructure has suffered the greatest losses in the Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk regions.
Creative hubs make up the largest group of damaged or destroyed cultural objects, representing 48.3% of the total affected institutions. The breakdown of affected facilities is as follows:
– creative hubs – 1,042;
– libraries – 770;
– arts education institutions – 165;
– museums and galleries – 120;
– theaters, cinemas, and philharmonics – 39;
– nature reserves – 7;
– parks and zoos – 9;
– circuses – 4.
Damage has been reported in creative hubs, libraries, museums, and theaters across 300 territorial communities, representing 20.4% of all communities in Ukraine. The affected regions include Vinnytsia (3.2%), Dnipropetrovsk (20%), Donetsk (87%), Zhytomyr (17%), Zakarpattia (2%), Zaporizhzhia (40.3%), Kirovohrad (4%), Kyiv (28.6%), Luhansk (46.2%), Lviv (5.5%), Mykolaiv (44.2%), Odesa (10%), Poltava (4%), Sumy (62.7%), Kharkiv (58.9%), Kherson (43%) Khmelnytskyi (17%), Cherkasy (6.1%), Chernihiv (50.9%) and Kyiv city.
As of the end of December 2024, almost all of Luhansk and significant parts of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson remain under temporary occupation, making it impossible to accurately assess the number of cultural institutions affected by military actions.
