(Paris) At least 53 cultural sites have been damaged in Ukraine since the start of the Russian invasion on February 24, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported on Friday.
Posted at 12:24 p.m.
Among these sites are 29 religious sites, 16 historic buildings, four museums and four monuments, the damage of which UNESCO was able to verify by satellite imagery and actors on the spot, explained a spokesperson for UNESCO, that this list “is not exhaustive”.
“Our experts continue to investigate a number of reports,” he continued.
Five of these sites are in the region of Cherniguiv (North), a city shelled by the Russian army which appears in a “tentative” list of UNESCO, that is to say that Kyiv was to eventually present their candidacy so that they become part of the United Nations World Heritage.
Five others are located in the Kyiv region and 18 in the Kharkiv region, also the target of heavy Russian bombardment, according to the UNESCO list consulted by AFP. The rest of the damaged sites are shared between the regions of Sumy (north-east), Zhitomir (west of Kyiv), Zaporijjia (south), Donetsk and Luhansk (east).
This list does not contain information on the city of Mariupol (southeast), besieged and bombarded by Russian forces, or that of Kherson (south), occupied by these forces.
Asked whether this destruction had been committed by Russian forces, the spokesman replied: “These 53 sites whose damage we were able to verify include reports made by the Ukrainian authorities”, implying that Moscow was very responsible.
Russia is a signatory to a UN convention signed in 1954 for the protection of cultural property in the event of armed conflict.
“Any violation of these standards will engage the international responsibility of its authors”, reminded the Director General of UNESCO Audrey Azoulay in a letter sent on March 17 to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.