Destroyed cultural assets in Ukraine: »The occupiers have identified culture and humanity as enemies«

Enlarge image

People carry the statue of Ukrainian poet Gregorius Skovoroda after an attack on the museum named after him

Photo: Ricardo Moraes / REUTERS

Volodymyr Zelenskyy only pointed out at the weekend that the war in Ukraine was also a war against Ukrainian culture: "The occupiers have identified culture, education and humanity as their enemies," said the Ukrainian President after a cultural center in the east of the Landes had been shelled and several people were injured, including a child.

The Ukrainian Ministry of Culture and Information Policy collects the damage to cultural assets on a website that currently lists 359 entries, some of which have not been verified.

In the period from February 24, the beginning of the war, to May 16, 2022, UNESCO registered 133 sites that were damaged: »57 religious sites, 12 museums, 26 historical buildings, 16 buildings dedicated to cultural activities, 15 monuments and 7 libraries,” according to the United Nations website. 

The President of the Federal Council and Thuringia's Prime Minister Bodo Ramelow (left) also recently addressed the topic.

The Russian military machine should not be allowed to destroy not only people but also memory and culture, he said at the start of International Museum Day on Sunday.

Against this background, the managing director of Icom Germany, the German national committee of the International Council of Museums, Klaus Staubermann, expressed his concern about the increasing targeted destruction of cultural monuments: In the east of Ukraine several thousand objects had already been deliberately destroyed.

"It's about a targeted loss of identity," he said, "for example, when church towers are destroyed."

In addition to church towers, cultural palaces, art schools, libraries and monuments, museums are affected, such as the one not far from Kharkov dedicated to the Ukrainian poet Gregorius Skovoroda, which was shelled at the beginning of May.

Or theaters like the one in Mariupol, which was attacked.

The city council assumed 300 dead. 

skr/AFP/dpa