UN: Russia War Ruins Ukraine Heritage Worth $3.5 Billion

A United Nations agency stated Tuesday that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has inflicted approximately $3.5 billion in damage to the country’s heritage and cultural assets.

“Culture, tourism, and entertainment have lost a total of $19 billion in revenues since the Russian invasion in February 2022”, the UN’s educational, scientific, and cultural organization UNESCO noted.

Last year, the Paris-based organization assessed the loss at roughly $2.6 billion.

According to UNESCO, which used satellite photographs to estimate the damage, over 5,000 sites have been destroyed, including over 340 sites such as museums, monuments, libraries, and religious venues.

In April of the previous year, there were 248 locations.

Two UNESCO World Heritage sites, the medieval centre of the western city of Lviv and Odesa in the south, were among those heavily damaged by Russian strikes.

Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi, the organization’s representative in Ukraine, singled out Odesa’s Transfiguration Cathedral, as a symbol for the whole community, which was severely damaged by a Russian strike in July of last year.

The Transfiguration Cathedral in Odesa was founded in 1794 and destroyed by the Soviets in 1936. It was rebuilt with contributions in the 2000s.

The Russian Orthodox Church, Kirill consecrated it in 2010.

Ukraine has seven cultural sites and one natural site on UNESCO’s World Heritage List, including the historic centre of Odesa.

Sixteen other monuments are on UNESCO’s tentative World Heritage sites list, awaiting a formal application from the Kyiv government to be designated World Heritage.

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