Ministry of Culture and Information Policy reports how many cultural monuments in Ukraine have been destroyed by the Russians
Mykhailo Zahorodnii — Staff reporter, UP.Zhyttia 22 July 2022
Since the beginning of the full-scale war in Ukraine, 434 war crimes against cultural heritage monuments by the Russian occupiers have been recorded.
The data as of 22 July has been published by the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy.
In total, 129 cultural heritage sites have been destroyed and damaged as a result of attacks by the occupiers. They include 22 sites of national importance, 100 of local importance, and 7 newly discovered cultural heritage sites.
In addition, the occupiers have damaged 105 valuable historical buildings in Ukrainian cities.
Read more: Occupiers destroy two mosaic panels in Mariupol
The destroyed cultural sites include:
- 149 religious buildings, 50 of which are registered as monuments of history, architecture and town planning, or as valuable historical buildings;
- 46 memorial monuments honouring historical figures and events of the 19th-early 21st centuries;
- 33 museums and reserves;
- 41 libraries;
- 65 cultural centres, theatres, cinemas and other cultural institutions.
The largest number of crimes against Ukraine’s cultural heritage was recorded in Kharkiv Oblast.
In total, monuments have been destroyed in 15 oblasts of Ukraine:
- In Kharkiv Oblast – 99
- In Donetsk Oblast – 97
- In Kyiv Oblast – 79
- In Luhansk Oblast – 44
- In Chernihiv Oblast – 38
- In Sumy Oblast – 28
- In Zaporizhzhia Oblast – 16
- In Mykolaiv Oblast– 8
- In Zhytomyr Oblast – 6
- In Kyiv – 5
- In Kherson Oblast– 5
- In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast – 4
- In Odesa Oblast – 2
- In Vinnytsia Oblast – 2
- In Lviv Oblast - 1
Information about Russian war crimes against cultural heritage continues to be received.
The Ministry of Culture is urging people to report the crimes of the Russian military on their platform via this link.
"All materials will be used as evidence for criminal proceedings against the Russian perpetrators," emphasised Kateryna Chuieva, Deputy Minister of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine.
Read more: The documentation of cultural heritage destroyed by the Russians begins with the help of 3D scanners
