UNESCO Places Two More Ukrainian Cultural Heritage Sites Under Enhanced Protection

The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has added the Babyn Yar Reserve and the Odesa Literary Museum in Ukraine to the International List of Cultural Property under Enhanced Protection.

This was reported by the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine.

On 11 December, Deputy Minister of Culture Anastasia Bondar took part in the 19th meeting of the UNESCO Committee for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict. The participants of the event supported Ukraine's initiative and decided to add two sites to the list of sites under enhanced protection.

The International List of Cultural Property under Enhanced Protection includes the Babyn Yar National Historical and Memorial Reserve and the Odesa Literary Museum.

‘The Babyn Yar National Historical and Memorial Reserve is a reminder of one of the darkest pages of human history, emphasising the importance of memory and the fight against hatred. Despite the daily shelling, the Odesa Literary Museum remains a strong symbol of Ukrainian culture,’ Bondar said.

Previously, 25 sites of cultural heritage of Ukraine have already been included in this list. These are most of the sites that are on the UNESCO World Heritage List and the previous UNESCO World Heritage List, excluding sites on the territories temporarily occupied by Russia.

As The Gaze previously reported, UNESCO's ‘special monitoring’ mechanism will be applied on an emergency basis to the House of State Industry in Kharkiv, which was heavily damaged on 8 November this year as a result of another attack by the Russian Federation. Ukraine will be the first country to apply this mechanism.