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The United Nations’ cultural office announced on Friday that at least 53 historical landmarks, religious buildings, and museums in Ukraine were damaged during Russia’s invasion of the country.
“This is the most recent list, but it is not exhaustive,” a UNESCO spokesperson told AFP, as the body published a list of the 53 damaged monuments in the country’s north and east.
Over a dozen buildings, ranging from churches to more modern heritage sites, have been destroyed, according to UNESCO, in the eastern Kharkiv region, which has been pounded hard by Russian fire.
Five of them are in Kyiv, Ukraine’s capital, and five more are in the Chernihiv region of northern Ukraine, which is home to a number of ancient landmarks.
According to UNESCO, the damage to 29 religious sites, 16 historic buildings, four museums, and four monuments in Ukraine has been certified.
The list excludes data from the besieged city of Mariupol and the Russian-occupied city of Kherson.
None of the reported damaged sites are on Ukraine’s list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites, such as the Saint-Sophia Cathedral and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra’s monastic buildings.
The historic centre of Chernihiv, on the other hand, is on the Tentative List, which means Ukraine wants it to be considered for World Heritage designation.
UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay reminded Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov of Russia’s responsibility to protect cultural heritage during conflict in a letter issued on March 17, a copy of which was obtained by AFP.
“Any infringement of these rules would result in the culprits being held accountable on an international level,” she warned, adding that UNESCO would be constantly monitoring the state of Ukraine’s cultural property.
According to the Interfax-Ukraine news agency, Ukraine’s culture ministry chimed in on the same matter on Friday, stating it has documented 135 cases of Russian troops committing crimes against Ukraine’s cultural heritage since the war began.
The crimes included the destruction of a local history museum in the Kyiv region, the bombing of a play theatre in Mariupol, a southern port city besieged by Moscow for nearly a month, and the vandalism of a Holocaust memorial in Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine, according to the agency.
