464 cases of Russia’s war crimes against Ukrainian cultural heritage sites and cultural institutions have already been recorded

As of August 10, 2022, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine has recorded 464 cases of russian war crimes against Ukrainian cultural heritage, the governmental press office reported.

“The aggressor-country is fighting against our identity, so it deliberately targets cultural objects. It tries to destroy our memory so that there is nothing left that connects us with our origin. Unfortunately, this happens almost every day. Due to the enemy shelling of the city of Marhanets in Dnipropetrovsk region, which happened last night, the aggressor had damaged a cultural center and an art school. It is important for us to preserve our heritage. That’s why we immediately repair cultural objects that were damaged by shelling wherever possible. At first, we assess the scale of damage, then the builders arrive,” said Oleksandr Tkachenko, Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.

Therefore, 139 objects of cultural heritage were destroyed and damaged as a result of the shelling of the occupiers. In particular, these are 23 monuments of national importance, 109 monuments of local importance, 108 objects of valuable historical buildings and 7 newly discovered objects of cultural heritage.

Read also: Russia’s military blunders in Ukraine: Defense Minister’s commentary

In addition, 361 art objects and cultural institutions were destroyed or damaged due to the actions of the occupiers.

Among which 162 belong to religious buildings, 70 cultural centers, theaters, cinemas and other artistic centers; 51 memorial monuments and works of art; 44 libraries; 34 museums and reserves.

Crimes were recorded in 15 regions of Ukraine:

104 – in Kharkiv region (the largest number – 86 in the city of Kharkiv and its outskirts),

104 – in Donetsk region (the largest number – 69 in the city of Mariupol and its outskirts),

79 – in Kyiv region (the largest number – 52 in Bucha district),

56 – in Luhansk region (the largest number – 51 in Sievierodonetsk district),

38 – in Chernihiv region (the largest number – 29 in the city of Chernihiv and its outskirts),

28 – in Sumy region (the largest number – 18 in Okhtyrka district),

17 – in Zaporizhzhia region (the largest number – 10 in Pology district),

and

9 – in Mykolaiv region,

6 – in Zhytomyr region,

6 – in Kherson region,

5 – in the city of Kyiv,

5 – in Dnipropetrovsk region,

4 – in Odesa region,

2 – in Vinnytsia region,

1 – in Lviv region.

“In recent weeks, we have started comparing data with information collected by our colleagues from the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnic Affairs and Freedom of Conscience (DESS) and regional administrations. The list of objects is being refined and constantly updated,” said Kateryna Chuyeva, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy.

You can help in collecting information as follows:

  • send information about damaged or destroyed sites of cultural heritage, which are not yet in the MCIP database, in your regions and communities here.
  • send clarifications or additional photo and video materials to sites already in the database to the address [email protected]

Note: if you take data from the network, please be sure to add a link to the source.