Russia destroyed 591 facilities of cultural infrastructure in Ukraine

Ukraine has calculated the tragic consequences of the Russian war for its cultural infrastructure. Russian military attacks have damaged or destroyed clubs, libraries, museums, theatres, and philharmonic institutions.

Russia’s attacks during the war in Ukraine have damaged 1624 cultural infrastructure facilities, almost a third of which have been destroyed, the Ministry of Culture and Information Policy reported (Ministry website, in Ukrainian) on August 31.

“The Ministry of Culture and Information Policy continues to record damage to cultural infrastructure in Ukraine due to Russian aggression… 1624 cultural infrastructure facilities, excluding cultural heritage sites, have been damaged. Of these, almost a third (591 facilities) were destroyed,” the ministry’s press service said.

The damaged and destroyed facilities list includes 769 clubs, 619 libraries, 93 museums and galleries, 30 theatres and philharmonic institutions, and 122 art education institutions.

This month, 19 more cultural infrastructure facilities were added to the list, most of them in the Odesa region.

The Ministry of Culture notes that the most significant losses and damage to cultural infrastructure occurred in Donetsk, Kherson, Kharkiv, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk regions.

The current figures are still being determined, as the ministry emphasises that it is impossible to accurately calculate the number of affected facilities in the Russian-occupied territories.

After Russian missile strikes at the drama theatre in Chernihiv, the Ministry of Culture called for Russia’s expulsion from UNESCO and described the damaged drama theatre as “completely destroyed.”

In July, the Russian savage missile attack on various cultural sites in Odesa’s city centre, which is home to the World Heritage place “The Historic Centre of Odesa,” was condemned by UNESCO.

In the Odesa shelling by the Russian military significant cultural landmarks like Transfiguration Cathedral were damaged. In July, Russian missile attacks impacted numerous cultural landmarks in Lviv and Odesa that the World Heritage Convention protects.