The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) announced on Tuesday that the war in Ukraine has inflicted damages worth $3.5 billion on the country’s heritage and culture sector.
Moreover, Ukraine has suffered a total loss of $19 billion in revenues from entertainment, art, and tourism since the onset of the conflict.
The Paris-based organization had previously reported in April 2023 that the estimated damages to Ukraine’s heritage and culture sector nearly one year into the conflict amounted to $2.6 billion, with losses in the tourism, art, and entertainment sectors reaching a total of $14.6 billion at that time.
In its latest report, UNESCO disclosed that it had identified 5,000 sites destroyed in Ukraine since the beginning of the war in February 2022, including 341 cultural sites, up from 248 sites reported in April 2023.
Russian bombardment particularly damaged two sites listed on UNESCO’s World Heritage list: the historic center of Lviv in the west and its counterpart in Odesa in the south.
Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi, UNESCO’s representative in Ukraine, highlighted the significant damage to the Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa due to a Russian airstrike in July, describing the church as “a symbol for the entire community.”
The Transfiguration Cathedral, with a history spanning over 200 years, was destroyed by the Soviets in 1936 and later rebuilt in the early 2000s through donations.
The cathedral was consecrated in 2010 by the Patriarch of the Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill.
Bardeschi expressed regret over the cathedral’s loss, noting its “religious and spiritual value to the city and the community” and lamenting that it is no longer usable by the community.
UNESCO’s World Heritage list includes eight sites in Ukraine, seven of which are cultural and one natural, reflecting the rich cultural heritage and natural beauty of the country now marred by the ongoing conflict.
