UNESCO: Russia Damaged 345 Cultural Sites in Ukraine

As of 6 March 2024, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) has confirmed that Russia has damaged 345 cultural sites in Ukraine since 24 February 2022, the beginning of the full-scale Russian war. Of these sites, 127 are religious, 153 are buildings of historical and/or artistic interest, 31 are museums, 19 are monuments, 14 are libraries, and 1 is an archive.

"We are all witnessing constant attacks on cultural heritage sites. As of today, UNESCO has already verified the damage to cultural sites in Ukraine," said Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi, Head of the UNESCO Office in Ukraine, at a presentation and expert discussion at Ukrinform on "Analysis and Synchronisation of Ukrainian Legislation in the Field of Cultural Heritage Protection."

She added that UNESCO has repeatedly officially condemned these attacks on cultural heritage (including World Heritage sites) and recalled that under international law, the intentional destruction of cultural sites can qualify as a war crime.

This published data, which will be updated regularly, does not commit the Organisation. 

UNESCO, together with its partner organisations, is also developing a mechanism for an independent coordinated assessment of data in Ukraine, including the analysis of satellite imagery, in accordance with the provisions of the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict.

At the same time, according to the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy, as of 25 February 2024, 1,946 cultural infrastructure facilities (excluding cultural heritage sites) in Ukraine were damaged, of which 317 were destroyed. The greatest losses and damage to the cultural infrastructure occurred in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv and Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Luhansk, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

In addition, according to the ICIP, 945 cultural heritage sites in Ukraine have been damaged or destroyed as a result of Russian aggression. Most of them are in Kharkiv, Donetsk, Odesa and Kherson regions.