Marek Lemiesz, an expert of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland informed on January 22, 2023, that Russians destroyed at least 553 objects of cultural heritage in Ukraine.
Source: Marek Lemiesz, an expert of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland
“Among them, 234 have already been verified by UNESCO. This is probably only the tip of the iceberg. In Chernihiv [northern Ukraine – ed.], where we work, thanks to the work of my Ukrainian friends who collected data on destruction, there were 38 objects that were officially on the list of destroyed, and now we have doubled the number on this list. Let me remind you that Russian military formations were stationed in Chernihiv for less than 5 weeks,” explained the expert of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage of Poland.
Marek Lemiesz emphasized that despite keeping records of losses, it is impossible to fully assess the extent of the damage that the Russian military inflicts on Ukraine, as Russia carries out air and artillery strikes.
“Actually, the conflict in Ukraine, if we talk about cultural heritage, cannot be compared with anything, with any armed conflict after 1945,” said Marek Lemiesz.
The destruction of monuments and cultural objects is accompanied by the looting of museum collections and the destruction of Ukrainian books.
