The United Nations organization travels from city to city in Ukraine, to provide support to municipalities that have seen their library, museum, or religious building destroyed.
The Mariupol Theatre, the Ivankiv Historical Museum… Unesco (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) has identified a total of 241 cultural sites that have been destroyed or damaged since the beginning of the war in Ukraine.
The organization identifies, tries to consolidate and repair when possible. In his list of buildings collateral victims of this war, we find the theater of Mariupol, destroyed, bombarded by the Russians, in a city largely razed to the ground. There is also the historical museum of Ivankiv, partly burned, without roofs, with always inside the colored works of the Ukrainian artist Maria Primatchenko.
When the destruction is less significant, Unesco offers very practical aid to provide: electric generators, for example, to avoid power cuts. “To keep the necessary temperature level, because there are many works of art, including manuscripts, for which the temperature is very important, explain Krista Pikkat, Director of Culture and Emergencies at Unesco. Electricity is also the surveillance cameras, which are essential for safeguarding these collections.”
The eight listed properties are intact
On the spot, Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi moves from town to town. In kyiv, the representative of Unesco in Ukraine brought, with its teams, its support to four museums, hit by missiles in October 2022. “Three of these museums can reopen, and are now reorganizing temporary exhibitions”. This allows access to national heritage, culture, traditions, which is for the organization of the United Nations, more than necessary, in time of war.
Unesco, which is pleased to see the eight Ukrainian properties, listed as World Heritage, being intact. This is proof, according to the Paris-based organization, that their classification is a form of protection.