Ministry of Culture to ask UNESCO to create a mechanism to protect the architectural integrity of the historic center of Kyiv
4 January 2025 10:56
The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications discussed mechanisms for bringing Russia to justice for crimes against Ukrainian cultural heritage. This was reported by the Ministry of Culture, "Komersant Ukrainian" reports.
The meeting emphasized the importance of clear coordination of work on collecting evidence of crimes against cultural heritage, as well as the need to ensure that perpetrators are brought to justice.
As noted, the key steps to ensure justice are the documentation of each offense, sanctions against the perpetrators, tracking of stolen property, and criminal investigations in different jurisdictions.
This meeting at the ministry took place after Russia launched another missile attack on January 1, 2025, which also damaged cultural heritage sites in the center of Kyiv. In particular, on the first morning of the new year 2025, the enemy hit the building of the National Union of Writers of Ukraine. It is one of the landmarks of Lypky and the government quarter. in 1989, the first meeting of the People’s Movement of Ukraine was held there.
The Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications of Ukraine intends to appeal to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to facilitate the creation of a mechanism to preserve and protect the architectural integrity of the streets of the historic center of the capital, regardless of the status of buildings or their ownership.
Russian aggressor destroys cultural heritage of Ukraine
According to the Ministry of Culture, according to information provided by the regional and Kyiv city military administrations, 33 cultural heritage sites in Zaporizhzhia, Kirovohrad, Sumy, Mykolaiv, Kharkiv regions and the city of Kyiv were damaged in December last year.
As of the end of December 2024, the total number of damaged cultural heritage sites in Ukraine is 1255. Of these, 125 are of national importance, 1055 are of local importance, and 75 are newly discovered.
Cultural monuments were damaged in 18 regions and the city of Kyiv, in particular: Kharkiv region – 324, Kherson – 180, Donetsk – 164, Odesa – 137, Chernihiv – 65, Kyiv region and the city of Kyiv – 83, Zaporizhzhia – 57, Mykolaiv – 44, Dnipro – 49, Lviv – 60, Sumy – 33, Luhansk – 32, Khmelnytskyi – 10, Poltava – 6, Vinnytsia and Zhytomyr – 4, Kirovohrad – 2, Cherkasy – 1.
