The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine continues to record russian war crimes against the cultural heritage of Ukraine.
“Due to russian aggression, the cultural heritage in most regions of Ukraine was damaged and destroyed. As a result of shelling, buildings have such damage that Ukrainians have not seen since World War II. Currently, as of July 1, we have 407 verified cases of russian war crimes against our heritage. These are approximate numbers. After all, it is difficult to get information from temporarily occupied territories and places of active hostilities. The MCIP continues to work on recording the destruction of cultural heritage sites in order to have evidence for international proceedings. We continue consultations and negotiations with international partners, in particular, specialists from the UNESCO and ICCROM (the International Center for the Study of Preservation and Restoration of Cultural Property) and professional public organizations in matters of cultural heritage protection and loss documentation. Pilot projects on 3D scanning of damaged objects were also implemented with the participation of foreign specialists,” said Kateryna Chuyeva, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.
Currently, russian war crimes against cultural heritage have been recorded in 13 regions of Ukraine and in the city of Kyiv. The most damaged objects of cultural heritage and infrastructures were recorded in Kharkiv region – 97 cases. 93 crimes were documented in Donetsk region, 62 of them – in the city of Mariupol. 76 cases were recorded in Kyiv region. The largest number – 50 cases – in Bucha district. 32 crimes – in Luhansk region, the most of them – 27 – in Sievierodonetsk district. 28 cases – in Sumy region, the largest number – 18 crimes – in the Okhtyrka district. 16 cases are in Zaporizhia region, most of them – 9 – in the Pologiv district. Also, 6 cases are documented in Zhytomyr region, 5 of them – in the city of Kyiv, Kherson and Mykolaiv regions, 3 – in Dnipropetrovsk region, 2 – in Odesa region and 1 – in Lviv region.
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Currently, it is already known about the complete destruction of 10 sites of cultural heritage in Donetsk, Kyiv, Sumy and Chernihiv regions, and the state of another 25 damaged objects remains unknown. All affected objects have different degrees of damage: 66 were severely damaged, 134 were moderately damaged, and 172 were slightly damaged.
So far, 125 sites of cultural heritage have been damaged by russians in Ukraine. Constant shelling, rocket strikes and bomb attacks led to the destruction of 21 sites of national importance, 97 are of local importance and 7 – newly discovered cultural heritage sites.
In total, 101 objects of valuable historical buildings were damaged, but religious buildings were the most affected. The occupiers destroyed or damaged 145 religious buildings. 51 of them are registered as historical, architectural and urban planning sites or as valuable historical buildings.
The enemy have destroyed 45 memorial monuments in honor of historical figures and events of the XIX – early XXI centuries, 31 buildings and complexes of museums and reserves, 87 constructions of houses of culture, theaters and libraries, as well as some other valuable historical buildings.
It should be reminded that the destruction of cultural heritage sites is a war crime under the 1954 Hague Convention. The MCIP continues to record russian crimes against Ukrainian cultural heritage on the national platform https://culturecrimes.mkip.gov.ua/. We also urge you to join this process, while remembering your personal safety.
