UNESCO mission to record cultural heritage sites destroyed by Russians is launched in Chernihiv

The UNESCO mission has started its work in the Ukrainian city of Chernihiv. It will be ongoing for a week starting 30 October. Ukrainian and foreign experts will assess the damage done to the Ukrainian cultural heritage landmarks during the Russian missile attacks a year and a half ago during the offensive of the Russian army in the city of Chernihiv and the occupation of a part of Chernihiv Oblast.

Source: press service of the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy of Ukraine (MCIP)

Details: The goal of the mission is to search and collect the information about the damage done to the historical and cultural buildings. After all the information is worked on, the participants of the mission will create a restoration plan.

The mission is being conducted within the framework of the project Support for Ukraine in the Sector of Culture and Education through UNESCO: Reacting to Emergencies for The World Heritage and Cultural Values: Damage Assessment and Protection. The members of the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS) and Ukrainian experts have also joined the mission.

Quote: "In tight cooperation with the International Council on Monuments and Sites (ICOMOS), deliberative body of the Committee of the World Heritage and partner-executive of the project, UNESCO wants to contribute to the creation of the restoration plan of the historical centre of the city of Chernihiv, including the territory of the object added to the Preliminary List of the World Heritage of Ukraine in 1989 entitled The Historical Centre of Chernihiv of the 9th-13th centuries."

What landmarks will be studied by the UNESCO mission

Constant strikes and missile attacks by the Russians have caused huge damage to the Ukrainian cultural sector. According to the 1954 Hague Convention, deliberate targeting of the cultural and religious objects that are not military targets is forbidden by the international humanitarian law.

According to the latest reports of the MCIP, 1.700 cultural infrastructure facilities in total have been damaged due to the actions of the Russians in Ukraine.

UNESCO preserves its statistics of the cultural objects damaged in Ukraine. The latest list published in summer 2023 had information about 274 objects in it. Then, the damage to 17 cultural landmarks was registered in Chernihiv Oblast.

Due to the ballistic missile attack on Chernihiv on 19 August 2023, the historical centre of the city was damaged. Then the MCIP stated that adding it to the UNESCO World Heritage Objects List was being considered at the time.

Among the landmarks, which were damaged and will be the first to be examined by the experts of the mission, was the Taras Shevchenko Chernihiv Music and Drama Theater struck by a ballistic missile. It was basically destroyed. The Piatnytska Church, located right behind the theatre, the Saint Anthony's Caves and other landmarks were damaged as well.

In May 2023, the meeting between local authorities with Kiara Bardeski, Head of the UNESCO Bureau in Ukraine, was held in Chernihiv.

The Ministry of Restoration of Ukraine then reported that the work of adding the cultural landscape of Chernihiv to the world heritage was being conducted. This will first and foremost concern the objects of the National Architecture and Historical Natural Resort Ancient Chernihiv – a historical outskirt, former city ground fortress with all its buildings: the Yeletsk Mountain with the ensemble of the Yeletsk Monastery and the Chorna Mohyla (Black Tomb) barrow, the Boldyn Mountain with the burial site of the 10th century and the Trinity Monastery complex.

Earlier, the historical centre of the city of Odesa was recognised as an endangered UNESCO world heritage site.

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