The Russian invasion of Ukraine has caused about $2.6 billion worth of damage to the country’s heritage and cultural sites, a United Nations (UN) agency said on Monday.
On 24th February 2022, Russia invaded and occupied parts of Ukraine in a major escalation of the Russo-Ukrainian war, which began in 2014. The invasion has resulted in tens of thousands of deaths on both sides, and instigated Europe’s largest refugee crisis since World War II.
About eight million Ukrainians were displaced within their country by last June, and more than 8.1 million had fled the country by March this year.
UN’s Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) said that culture, tourism, sports and entertainment have lost a combined $15.1 billion in revenues to the war.
Close to 250 monuments have either been damaged or completely destroyed, mostly in the east of the country, it said.
UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, who visited Ukraine on Monday, said around $6.9 billion was needed to repair the damage and get the sectors back on their feet.
“We will help the Ukrainian authorities draw up a national reconstruction plan for the culture sector,” she said.
Seven cultural sites and one natural site in Ukraine are on UNESCO’s World Heritage List including, as of this year, the historic city centre of Odesa in the southwest, which has been largely spared damage in the conflict.
Sixteen other sites are on UNESCO’s tentative world heritage sites list, awaiting a formal application by the government in Kyiv to be given World Heritage status.
They include the centre of Chernigiv in northern Ukraine, which sustained heavy damage during a Russian siege in the early months of the conflict.
