Unesco “strongly condemned” Friday Russian strikes carried out “early Thursday morning” against the city center of Odessa (south-western Ukraine), which, since January 2023, has been part of the world heritage of humanity.
“According to a preliminary assessment, several museums located within the World Heritage site suffered damage, including the Archaeological Museum, the Fleet Museum and the Literature Museum of Odessa”underlined the UN organization for culture, science and education.
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“All had been marked by Unesco and local authorities with the Blue Shield, the distinctive emblem of the 1954 Hague Convention” for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict, which was therefore “raped” in Odessa, denounced Unesco.
The Russian attack “Perpetrated just two weeks after the one that destroyed a building” of the historic center of Lviv (North-West), another World Heritage site, has also “coincided with the destruction of the Cultural Center of Folk Art and Art Education in the city of Mykolaiv”, regretted the UN institution.
And Unesco to call for “cease all attacks against cultural property protected under widely ratified international normative instruments”. “This war poses a growing threat to Ukrainian culture”she insisted, adding that she had identified “damage to 270 Ukrainian cultural sites” since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022.
Odessa, inscribed on the list of World Heritage in Danger
The historic center of Odessa, a famous city on the shores of the Black Sea, was inscribed in January 2023 on the UNESCO list of World Heritage in Danger due to the “threats of destruction” hovering because of the war on this site, all the more at risk as it is close to the port, a strategic infrastructure for Ukraine.
Tensions have flared in southwestern Ukraine since Moscow’s rejection this week of the Ukrainian grain export deal, which allowed cargo ships loaded with agricultural products to leave Ukrainian ports through protected sea lanes. During the night from Thursday to Friday, Russian Kalibr cruise missiles, fired from the Black Sea, hit the region for the fourth consecutive night, local governor Oleg Kiper said. If the Russian army assured to target only military sites, at least three people died in this area in the night from Wednesday to Thursday.