According to a new United Nations count, the war in Ukraine has so far destroyed more than 200 Ukrainian cultural heritage items, including 88 religious buildings.
The United Nations has presented a new platform, managed by the UN Satellite Center (Unosat), which is used to monitor the cultural treasures devastated by the war with Russia, thanks to the collection of satellite images.
Damage to 207 artistic constructions in Ukraine has been confirmed to date. Consequently, they are destroying historical and religious buildings, cultural centers, monuments, museums, libraries… with Donetsk, Kharkiv and kyiv being the most affected cities.
This platform continuously provides information to UNESCO. “We first collect the information about damage that appears in the media and social networks, we try to confirm it with more sources and from there we go on to collect satellite images that we analyze to confirm if such damage has occurred,” explains the Director of Culture in the presentation. and Unesco Emergencies, Krista Pikkat.
Likewise, this intelligent medium guarantees the display of images of the damaged places before and after being attacked, while presenting a map where statistics are gathered about the damage caused by region and by type of cultural asset (religious, archaeological, and so on). “This is a pilot experience to see how we can compile this type of information, and in the future we hope to expand the scope of study to a global level,” adds Pikkat.
The value of these losses reaches a total of more than 25 million euros, according to the Ukrainian Ministry of Culture, and is expected to double in the medium term due, also, to the lack of conservation conditions in the heritage that follows except, since it is expected, especially with the arrival of winter, the power cut and the heating.
Krista Pikkat points out that UNESCO and Unosat “do not have a mandate to find out which side committed the damage” confirmed by the platform and clarifies that none of the seven properties belonging to Ukraine’s World Heritage have so far been destroyed or damaged by the war. Among them is the Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kiyv, the historical complex of the city of Lviv, or the tserkvas (wooden churches) scattered in the Carpathians.
However, UNESCO warns of future attacks, where one of the most vulnerable historical centers could be Odessa, a city whose old town is a candidate to enter the World Heritage list.
“These repeated attacks on Ukrainian cultural sites must stop. Cultural heritage, in all its forms, must not be targeted under any circumstances. I reiterate my call for respect for international humanitarian law, in particular the Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property in the Event of Armed Conflict”, concludes the Director General of UNESCO, Audrey Azoulay.
