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The UN cultural organisation is aiming to mark as many key heritage sites with the Hague Convention emblem, which protects cultural heritage in the event of armed conflict
Lauren Heath-Jones | Planet Attractions | 09 Mar 2022
Renderings of the upcoming Holocaust Museum at the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center in Kyiv Credit: Manuel Herz Architekten
Unesco has called for the protection of Ukrainian cultural heritage, saying it is "gravely concerned" by the destruction inflicted by Russian president Vladimir Putin's invading forces.
The UN cultural organisation has said that it's aiming to "mark as quickly as possible key historic monuments and sites across Ukraine with the distinctive emblem of the 1954 Hague Convention - an internationally recognised signal for the protection of cultural heritage in the event of an armed conflict."
The organisation is also looking to arrange a meeting with museum directors from across Ukraine to organise safeguarding actions to protect cultural property and museum collections.
Freedom Square in Kharkiv was left covered in rubble following the March 1 missile attacks CREDIT: Vyacheslav Madiyevskyy/Ukrinform/abacapress.com
Government buildings in Kharkiv's central Freedom Square were hit by missiles on March 1. Freedom Square, one of the largest squares in Europe, is home to important Constructivist architecture, including the Derzhprom building, one of the first concrete Soviet skyscrapers, standing at 14-storeys tall.
According to the BBC, the missiles also caused damage to the opera house and concert hall, with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky describing the attack as "terror against Ukraine", saying "there were no military targets in the square."
A second March 1 missile attack targeting a television broadcasting tower in central Kyiv hit the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. The memorial site is dedicated to the memory of the 70,000 to 100,000 Jews, including Kyiv's entire Jewish population, killed at the site by Nazi forces between 1941 and 1943.
At least five people died in the attack, which, a memorial spokesperson told theTimes of Israel, damaged several buildings in Babyn Yar's Jewish Cemetary, although a monument to the victims had not been affected.
According to reports a memorial statue commemorating the Jews who lost their lives at the site was unaffected by the shells CREDIT: AndriiDydiuk, via Wikimedia
Andriy Yermak, President Zelensky's chief of staff, confirmed the attack on Twitter, describing it as a "powerful barrage."
The centre is also the site of a new Holocaust museum, which had been under development ahead of the attacks. The museum was scheduled to be completed in 2025-26, with its first phase originally expected to be completed later this year. The museum is being built to commemorate the atrocities that took place on the site.
"To the world: what is the point of saying never again for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? At least five killed, history repeating", Ukrainian president Zelensky said on Twitter.
On March 2, the Ukrainian state news agency Ukrinform reported that a missile attack on Kharkiv that day damaged the Assumption Cathedral, a Russian Orthodox church in the city's centre, destroying its decorative features and stained-glass windows, while on March 3 online footage showed a shell hitting a residential building in the city of Chernihiv, whose historic city centre is listed on Unesco's tentative list.
Prymachenko's work on display at the Mystetsky Arsenal Art Gallery in Kyiv, 50 miles north of the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum, which was destroyed in February CREDIT: Efrem Lukatsjy/AP
These attacks followed the destruction of the Ivankiv Historical and Local History Museum at the end of February. The museum, located northwest of Kyiv, was home to 25 works by celebrated Ukrainian folk artist Maria Prymachenko, all of which were reportedly destroyed in a blaze started by Russian forces. Ukraine's minister of Culture and Information Policy called for Unesco to revoke Russia's membership after the attack.
Ukraine is home to seven World Heritage sites and has 17 sites on the tentative list.
"We must safeguard this cultural heritage, as a testimony of the past but also as a vector of peace for the future, which the international community has a duty to protect and preserve for future generations," said Unesco director-general Audrey Azoulay in a statement.
Heritage
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