Topline
At least 71 cultural sites in Ukraine have been damaged since the Russian invasion began in February, according to UNESCO, the United Nations’ culture and heritage agency.
Key Facts
On Monday—the most recent date for which data are available—UNESCO had confirmed damage to 31 religious sites, 26 historic buildings, 6 museums, a library and a handful of other cultural sites, the agency told Forbes.
The Kharkiv region, which has been badly battered by Russian forces, is home to 22 damaged cultural sites, more than any other area of Ukraine, according to UNESCO, including a large menorah at the Drobitsky Yar Holocaust Memorial that marks where an estimated 16,000 Jews were massacred by German soldiers during World War II.
Another 18 damaged sites are in the Donetsk region that includes Mariupol, a city on the Black Sea that has been under Russian siege for a month.
Just outside of Kyiv, Russian forces reportedly destroyed the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum, a building that was once home to Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko—25 of her paintings were lost.
Tangent
UNESCO noted that none of Ukraine’s six cultural World Heritage Sites—designations given by the organization to sites with “outstanding universal value”—appear to have been damaged. Those include St. Sophia Cathedral and Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastery in Kyiv, the historic Old Town in Lviv, and a monument marking a point of the Struve Geodetic Arc that helped determine the exact size and shape of Earth.
Key Background
People across Ukraine have been working to save the country’s cultural heritage. Outdoor monuments and statues across the country and the interior of historic churches have been braced with sandbags to prevent damage from attacks, and museum staffers have stored works of art underground or moved them for safekeeping. “There is an egomaniac in Moscow who doesn’t care about killing children, let alone destroying art,” Ihor Kozhan, a gallery director in Lviv, told the Washington Post, referencing Russian President Vladimir Putin. “If our history and heritage are to survive, all art must go underground.” Russia and Ukraine both signed the 1954 Hague Convention, an act designed to protect cultural heritage in both peacetime and war. According to a UNESCO declaration last month expressing concern over the Russian invasion of Ukraine, “directing unlawful attacks” against cultural sites may constitute a war crime under international law.
Big Number
$600,000. That’s how much a state-sponsored sale of non-fungible tokens made on the first day, the Ministry of Digital Transformation told Forbes last week. The 1,282 digital collectibles were purchased in ether, and proceeds will be used to rebuild the museums, theaters and other cultural institutions destroyed during the invasion, according to the ministry. The sale will continue throughout the conflict.
Full List
Chernihiv region
Chernihiv Regional Youth Center
Church of St. Theodosius
The Military Historical Museum, a branch of the Chernihiv Historical Museum
A regional children’s library, formerly the Vasyl Tarnovsky Museum of Ukrainian Antiquities
St. Catherine Church of Chernihiv
The former District Court House in Chernihiv (built in 1904)
Chernihiv Regional Universal Scientific Library “V.G. Korolenko” (built in 1910-13)
St. Kazan Church in Chernihiv
Kyiv Region
Ivankiv Museum
Voznesens’ka Tserkva, Church of the Ascension
St. George’s Church, Zavorychi
Petro-Pavlivska Church
The Irpin Bible Seminary
A memorial monument to villagers who died in World War II
House of Culture (built in 1952-54)
Kharkiv Region
Orthodox church in Kamianka village of Izyum
Uspensky Cathedral–Assumption Cathedral
Kharkiv Court of Appeal building
Historical “Slovo” building
Kharkiv Art Museum
Church of the Holy Queen Tamara
Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater
A historic residential building in Kharkiv
Korolenko State Scientific Library
Kharkiv National University economics faculty building
Former Palace of Labor building in Kharkiv
Church of the Holy Myrrh-Bearing Women
Former central lecture hall in Constitution Square
Historic residential building from the 19th century
Memorial Complex of Glory in Kharkiv
A monument to the architecture of a 19th-century building
Drobitsky Yar Holocaust Memorial
Historical fire department building from 1886
A former women’s gymnasium built in the 1870s
School No. 7 in Karkhiv, dating back to 1906
Labor and Social Protection of the Population of Izyum City Council building
Research Institute of Venereology building
Zaporijiya region
Church of St. Tikhon of Zadonsky
Jytomir Region
Church of the Blessed Virgin of the Ovruch Eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church
Church of St. Nicholas (Church of the Holy Veil defrocked Archimandrite Agathangelos)
Donetsk region
Svyatogorsk Holy Dormition Lavra monastery
Church of St. Nicholas of Myrlikiysky Wonderworker
Chapel of the Holy Martyr Tatiana
Tserkva Khrysta-Spasytelya Church
Donetsk Regional Drama Theatre in Mariupol
Our Lady of Kazan Orthodox Cathedral in Marinka
Monument to Metropolitan Ignatium of Mariupol in Marioupol
St. Archangel Michael Church in Mariupol
Church of the Icon of the Mother of God “Joy of All Mourners”
The Holy Transfiguration Church
St. Nicholas the Wonderworker
Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Mariupol
St. Dmytrivskaya Church
Mariupol Museum of Local Lore
Residential building from the 19th century in Mariupol
Memorial monument to Afghan soldiers
Residential buildings in Mariupol dating back to 1930
Monument to V.G. Korolenko in Mariupol
Lugansk region
St. Catherine’s Church (Katerynyns’ka Tserkva)
Temple in honor of the Icon of the Mother of God “All Sorrows joy” in Sverodonets
Islamic Cultural Centre “Bismillah” in Sverodonetsk
Holy-Christ-Christmas Cathedral (Church of the Nativity) in Sverodonetsk
St. Tikvin Church
St. Nicholas Church
Sumy region
Okhtyrka City Museum of Local Lore
Architectural monument to the former People’s House
Historical monument of architecture for the former home of entrepreneur L.E. Koenig
Monument in honor of the 183rd Tank Brigade that fought in World War II
Okhtyrka City Council building
The Smorodyne train depot
The main house on L.E.Koenig’s former estate
Further Reading
Ukraine Launches NFT Sale To Fund Fight Against Russia (Forbes)
