Unesco is stepping up measures for safeguarding cultural heritage in Ukraine by granting “provisional enhanced protection” to two more cultural properties especially at risk since Russia invaded the country in 2022, bringing the total number of cultural properties given this special status to 27.
One of the newly allocated sites is the ‘National Historical Memorial Reserve Babyn Yar’, the Kyiv-bassed site of a Holocaust massacre in 1941. On 29 and 30 September 1941, 33,771 Jews were murdered there by the Nazis, says Unesco. Roma (Gypsies) and Soviet prisoners were also killed at the site. The other protected site is the Odessa Literary Museum, a historic building that houses a cultural, educational and research centre.
“Cultural property under the enhanced protection of Unesco benefits from the highest level of immunity from attack and use for military purposes. Non-compliance with these clauses would constitute a ‘serious violation’ of the 1999 Second Protocol to the Hague Convention, opening the possibility of prosecution,” says Unesco.
Audrey Azoulay, the director general of Unesco, adds in a statement: “In times of war, international solidarity is crucial to protect threatened cultural heritage. This decision will make it possible to further strengthen the safety of these two Ukrainian cultural sites, including a major site for Holocaust remembrance.”
Late 2023 Unesco granted “provisional enhanced protection” to 20 cultural properties especially at risk since Russia’s invasion. The cultural properties previously placed on the list listed include the dendrological park “Sofijivka” in Uman, a landscape garden created in 1796, and the tomb of the 19th-century Ukrainian poet and artist Taras Shevchenko in Kanev.
Unesco continues to list and assess the damage done to Ukrainian cultural sites since the war began in February last year. As of 16 December, Unesco says it has verified damage to 468 sites in Ukraine including 145 religious sites, 32 museums, 238 buildings of historical and/or artistic interest and 33 monuments.
