09 July 2022

Devastation of Ukraine's cultural sites: a war crime


Saint Sophia Cathedral in Kyiv
still intact,, sofar!

There were plenty of articles about Russia’s worst war crime i.e the slaughter of civilians. Now UNESCO’s Director-General has added a les­ser war crime saying: We must safeguard the cultural herit­age in Ukr­aine, as a testimony of her past and as a catalyst for fut­ure peace and cohesion. In times of war, culture rallies the national spirit. And when the war is over, national culture matters even more.

In 2019 Russia was elected for a term to the World Heritage Committee. And at the last World Heritage’s sum­m­it (2021), the Rus­sian Fed­eration was selected to host the 2022 conference. UNESCO, the United Nations agency responsible for ov­erseeing international cult­ural her­it­age sites, were pressured by Eu­­r­opean groups to reloca­te the 2022 meeting scheduled for Ka­zan, aft­er Russia invaded Ukraine. Appropriately the Conference was postponed.

In March, as the Russian-Ukrainian conflict worsened, UNESCO became very anxious about threats to cultural her­itage sites across Ukraine.

Town hall, Kharkiv
de zeen 

So UNESCO urgently sought input from Ukrainian museum officials about safe­guarding cultural prop­erty at risk. Tracking the threats to Uk­r­aine’s cultural heritage was Artists at Risk, a global non-profit ag­ency that provided aid to artists in conflict zones.

Ukrainian authorities and UNESCO together marked cultural sites and mon­uments with the distinctive Blue Shield emblem of the 1954 Hague Con­vention (Protection of Cultural Property During Armed Con­f­lict). This Convention, signed by both Russia and Uk­r­aine, protected cultural properties from delib­erate or accid­ental damage during armed conflict

Note that before the war, Ukraine already had 7 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including Lviv’s Historic City Cent­re. Other sites inscribed on the World Heritage list eg Kyiv’s Saint-Sophia Cathedral and Kyiv’s Pechersk Lavra Monastery, were a prior­ity for protection.

Court of Appeal building in central Kharkiv, 
Guardian

By 27th June, UNESCO verified damage to 154 Ukrainian sites: 70 churches, 12 museums, 19 cultural sit­es, 30 historic build­­ings, 16 monuments and 7 libraries. In Kharkiv alone, 30+ heritage sites were destroyed like hospitals, opera house, concert hall and schools. Other crimes incl­­uded destroying a local history museum in Kyiv; bombing a Ukrainian Orthodox Church in Yas­nohorodka and a theatre in the port city Mariupol. The historic centre of Ch­er­nih­iv was wait­ing for world her­it­age status before the Rus­sian invas­ion. Now Ch­er­nihiv’s mayor has accused Rus­sian forces of focusing their bom­b­s on the besieged city’s cultural institutions. Kharkiv's Building of Court Instit­ut­ions, architect Oleksiy Beketov's largest work, was destroyed during a Russian air raid. The roof was torn apart and the interiors burnt. For my family the most impor­tant da­maged site was Babi Yar Holo­caust Memorial Centre in Kyiv, where the Nazis and their Uk­rainian collaborat­ors exterm­inated 33,000 Ukrainian Jews in 1941.

Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theatre, Mariupol 
ShareAmerica

Smaller art objects were protected wherever possible. But the Russian forces successfully stole gold artefacts from a Melitopol Museum that date to C4th BCE Scythian empire, one of Ukraine’s most val­uable collections. The stained glass of Lviv Cathedral was wrapped in shiny protective sheets, as were the statues surrounding the church. Statues located across Kyiv were totally covered with sandbags, against pot­en­t­ial Russian att­acks.

External statues in Kyiv, being protected with sandbags 

Some cultural build­ings will need rebuilding after the war, while oth­ers were totally destroy­ed and may be built de novo. UNESCO experts will cont­inue to ver­ify each bombing report and will add other sites to this list if bomb­ing continues. Afterwards UNESCO will meet Ukrain­ian cul­t­ural prof­ess­ion­als, World Heritage Site managers & museum dir­ec­t­ors, to det­er­mine what technical/fin­an­cial aid can be offered. IF the war ever ends!

All Saints Monastery of Svyatogorsk Lavra, C16th, constructed largely of wood.
The monastery was one of the most important monasteries of the Russian Empire
Fire from shelling in June 2022 burned it to the ground. Wiki

Art historian Waldemar Januszczak visited Ukraine in April to dis­cover how the national art was being protected from Russian bombs. In London just weeks earlier, Janus­z­czak had heard the Dir­ector of the National Museum Poznan had driven a truck to Ukr­aine, to help the Ukrainians hiding their art outside the country.

Driving to Lviv, giant billboards kept looming up, emblaz­oned with stirring Slavic calls to arms. “Be ready to join the army and save Uk­raine”. Correct! Lviv was a beautiful cobbled, gothic city, the ar­ch­itecture with a special Habsburgian mood to it that was rare in West­ern Europe. Januszczak visited the Lviv National Art Gallery, the lar­gest museum in Ukraine where all the nation’s important art treas­ures had already been sent for safekeeping.

Ann­unciation to the Blessed Virgin of the Boh­or­od­chany Iconostasis,
moved from Andrey Sheptytsky National Museum 
Robb Report

Di­r­­ector Taras Voznyak was annoyed that Westerners forgot­ the war ag­ainst Russia re Crimea started in 2014; the present war was part of that first war. Thus Ukraine had pl­enty of time to pre­pare reg­ul­at­ions for moving its national art to safe­ty. Yes many of the Kyiv, Kharkiv and Dnipro trea­sures were moved to Lviv. Or perhaps hidden elsewhere.

Voznyak drove the team out of Lviv to a secret store in a disused mon­astery, and to an old clerical prison surr­oun­d­ed by a high wall. They mar­ched along old corridors packed with thou­s­­ands of icons, thrown away by the Soviet soldiers when they took Uk­raine in 1939, and a very large collection of baroque church sculp­t­ures.

Map of Russia and Ukraine,
note Moscow, Kiev and Kharkiv

Read the UNESCO page 
Based on UNESCO's commitments, I will examine Odessa's situation separately.



18 comments:

Anonymous said...

That is a good summary. Whatever the outcome of the war may be, it will be a generation at least before Russia will have any chance of redeeming itself. The world will not trust Russia as a reliable supplier of anything in the interim.

Train Man said...

Ukraine's Temple Lavra Sviatohirsk was burned to the ground by shelling. Not beautiful or valuable financially, but possibly the most important Orthodox monastery in the country. A very holy site.

Hels said...

Andrew

as you know my family were Russian and were very grateful to the Russians' heroic effort with the other Allies in World Wars 1 and 2. But killing innocent civilians was unforgivable from Day 1. I cannot imagine Russia redeeming itself in our life time, partially because of this horrible war and partially because the U.S and others have hated Russia since the 1917 Russian Revolution in any case.

If I was Russia, I would pay for every SINGLE bombing of Ukrainian houses, schools, churches, factories and ports across that battered nation.

Hels said...

Train Man

Thank you for that. The main temple of the Sviatohirsk Lavra totally burned after a Russian attack in Donetsk Oblast, so I have added a good photo of the monastery _before_ the attack. There were NO military targets on the territory of the Svyatogorsk Lavra; just an historic and very important temple of the Orthodox monastery.

Luiz Gomes said...

Boa tarde. Desejo um excelente sábado com muita paz e saúde. Um tristeza ver um patrimônio histórico e cultural ser destruído dessa forma.

Hels said...

Luiz

agreed... sad and illegal to see a historical and cultural heritage being blown apart. It shows that the 1954 Hague Con­vention (Protection of Cultural Property During Armed Con­f­lict) was worth sod all in protecting cultural properties from delib­erate or accid­ental damage in war :(

Ana Carolina Domingues said...

Muito triste tudo que está acontecendo nessa guerra desnecessária, perdas irreparáveis
blog | insta

Hels said...

Ana

agreed. War is always filled with death and destruction.

But I suppose if both armies go after each other, and try to destroy only military facilities, no-one will listen to peaceniks. It is when they destroy civilians, and normal community services that the war becomes even more obscene.

Joe said...

The main building of the Kharkiv National Pedagogical University was destroyed by missile. The faculty of literature, scientific library, museum and lecture halls disappeared. So not only is the city being destroyed now but the future generation of professionals will have to study elsewhere.

Hels said...

Joe

I also saw the photos of destruction :(

The university once represented the future of Kharkiv. Now, even if the war eventually ends, I too imagine the brightest young students will be enticed into countries with safer, more established tertiary facilities.

Luiz Gomes said...

Muito triste a situação da Ucrânia. Parece que nunca acabará. Bom início de semana minha querida amiga.

Hels said...

Luiz

even if the war does end, the long term damage will take forever to repair. I am not even sure that the 5.2 million Ukrainians who fled across Europe will ever return home. And I wonder who will rebuild the cities that have been devastated.

Hilary Melton-Butcher said...

Hi Hels - it is just terrifyingly appalling ... and for now I can't comment properly - we are getting a lot of comparisons with Stalin and WW2 (and obviously earlier) ... I haven't been able to absorb all that's being generated.

I so feel for the Ukrainians - but are they setting examples for 'normal' people to follow, if their leaders allow them - thank goodness I live here - it may not be perfect, but at least I have freedom of speech and can control my life to an extent.

Your post makes very appropriate, but very very sad reading ... with thoughts - Hilary

Hels said...

Hilary

how does a nation shows its special cultural qualities? Its language(s), religion(s), cuisine, literature, music, theatre, universities and academies, galleries and museums. Even if normal people ever survive and live again, will their very special cultural qualities ever be re-established? Possibly not :(

mem said...

The destruction Of Ukrainian history is just appalling and inexplicable to me .Putin believes that Ukraine and Russia are one then why would he do this ? He is an abomination .
I heard someone talk about how dangerous it is to think of him as being as bad as Hitler because that would make a 3rd world war inevitable but it certainly is hard to think of him in any other way .

Hels said...

mem

as I said to Andrew, you know my family were Russian and were very grateful to the Russians' heroic effort with the other Allies in World Wars 1 and 2.

But killing civilians in the 2022 war was unforgivable from the very beginning. Thank goodness 5.2 million Ukrainians saved themselves by fleeing across Europe, but what choices will they face? Staying outside their own country for ever, or coming home post-war and finding no house, job or even food.

OSU.EDU said...

In early April, 2022 Ukrainian troops discovered the damage done to the Taras Shevchenko monument in a park opposite Kyiv University. Bullets had hit the great poet’s forehead and the pillar holding him up had been damaged by shells. The symbolism of the Russian attack on the monument is obvious. Taras Shevchenko is not just the founder of the modern Ukrainian literary language - he is also the most important symbol of modern Ukrainian nationhood.

Soviet authorities heralded Shevchenko as “the great son of Ukraine”. But he also remained a potent symbol for an independent Ukraine, his poems a reminder of its essential characteristics. When Ukraine gained independence in 1991, Shevchenko served as its spiritual founding father.

Stephen Norris
OSU.EDU

Hels said...

Stephen

destroying a statue of Shevchenko strongly suggests that this was a symbolic effort to destroy Ukrainian literature and nationhood :( And as Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv is the biggest and most prestigious uni in Ukraine, further damage is inevitable :(
I despair.