Destruction of heritage in Ukraine

On 3 March, Ukrainian Minister of Culture Oleksandr Tkachenko wrote a post on Facebook, in which he noted that the Russians were deliberately destroying the historic centres of Ukrainian cities. He added that they want to destroy on purpose European heritage and culture, to wipe it off the face of the earth.

Letter from the Director of the National Museum of History of Ukraine

The National Museum of History of Ukraine, located in Kiev, has over 800,000 artifacts. Inside are world-renowned collections of archaeology, numismatics, ethnography, weapons, decorative and applied arts, manuscripts, graphics, paintings and more.

At the end of February, the Director of the National Museum of Ukrainian History, Dr Fedir Androshchuk, addressed a letter to the Director General of the Swedish National Board for Cultural Heritage. He pointed out that the biggest threat to heritage is looting. Moreover, he added that despite the dangers, many employees of the institution came to work in the first days of the war and helped to secure the monuments. Then two archaeologists and two young historians went straight to the front.

The National Museum in Lviv - hiding heritage

Today, the walls of Ukraine's largest art museum shine with emptiness. In neatly packed cardboard boxes are magnificent works such as the 18th century Bohorodchansky iconostasis or the very valuable incunabula (a term for first prints) of Shvajpolt Fiol (1491-1493). For security reasons, the museum director does not want to disclose whether the most valuable relics have been taken out of the city. The museum's doors were closed when the war began, but every day the institution receives phone calls with offers of help from cultural institutions abroad.

The Dormition Cathedral of the Mother of God in Kharkov shelled

As of 21 March, as a result of continuous shelling in Kharkov, almost 1000 buildings were destroyed, 778 of them residential. The historic Dormition Cathedral of the Mother of God, which was completed in 1770, was also partially destroyed. Nowadays, the windows, damaged stained-glass windows and other furnishings are prominent. This unique temple survived the Bolsheviks and the Second World War. Will it survive the Russian invasion of Ukraine?