Since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, attacks have targeted not only civilians and infrastructure, but also the nation’s cultural heritage. Historic monuments, museums, religious sites, and centuries-old cityscapes have been damaged or destroyed, striking at the identity and memory of the Ukrainian people. And attacks in 2025 and early 2026 have shown that no part of the country’s cultural life is safe.
As of March 11, 2026, UNESCO had independently verified damage to 523 cultural sites. These include religious buildings, museums, monuments, libraries, and archaeological sites across Kyiv, Chernihiv, Kharkiv, Odesa, Mariupol, and Lviv. The figures are likely to rise as assessments continue, though, shining a light on the challenge of protecting cultural property during wartime.
Two years into the full scale invasion, UNESCO estimated that damage to Ukraine’s culture and tourism sectors had reached nearly $3.5 billion, and that close to $9 billion would be needed over the next decade to rebuild and recover. These estimates covered damage reported through early 2024, and the losses have only grown as the conflict continues.
Let’s look at some of that loss:
In Kyiv, the Saint-Sophia Cathedral, one of the most significant monuments of Eastern Christian architecture, and the Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra, both UNESCO World Heritage sites, were damaged on June 10, 2025.
Odesa’s Spaso-Preobrazhensky Cathedral, located in the city’s historic center, suffered serious damage from a missile strike on July 23, 2023. Emergency stabilization was needed to protect the roof and other structural elements, with UNESCO specialists called in to help prevent further collapse.
In Kharkiv, the Derzhprom State Industry Building, an internationally recognized example of modernist constructivist architecture, was damaged during Russian strikes in 2024, prompting special UNESCO monitoring.
Chernihiv’s historic city center, one of Ukraine’s oldest, and a candidate for the UNESCO Tentative List, was heavily damaged during the first months of the war.
Mariupol has seen some of the most dramatic losses. The Donetsk Academic Regional Drama Theater was destroyed in March 2022, becoming a potent symbol of the humanitarian disaster in the city. The Kuindzhi Art Museum was completely destroyed that same month, leaving the fate of much of its collection uncertain. Residents and cultural officials described the losses as heartbreaking.
The Ivankiv Museum of Local History and Culture was destroyed on February 27, 2022. It had housed more than 400 exhibits, including works by the internationally renowned Ukrainian artist Maria Prymachenko. While some works were saved by local residents, many are still missing.
The Hryhorii Skovoroda Literary Memorial Museum in the Kharkiv region was destroyed on May 6, 2022.
Taras Voznyak, director of the Lviv National Art Gallery, said, “Putin knows that without art, without our history, Ukraine will have a weaker identity.”
By February 2026, Ukrainian authorities reported that at least 700 religious sites had been damaged, around 200 churches and places of worship had been completely destroyed, and more than 70 religious leaders had been killed. Roughly seven million cultural artifacts have been lost, with 1.7 million stuck in the temporarily occupied territories. Thousands of museum exhibits have been stolen or destroyed, and, since 2014, more than five million archival documents from Ukraine’s National Archival Fund have fallen under temporary occupation.
On March 24, 2026, a drone strike hit central Lviv, damaging buildings in the UNESCO World Heritage-listed Historic Center and injuring civilians. Among the landmarks affected were parts of the Bernardine Monastery and the 17th-century St. Andrew’s Church. Residents described the blast as shocking, leaving debris spread across streets and stained-glass windows shattered. Lviv is home to Ukraine’s first UNESCO Cultural Hub, created to protect and support cultural life during the war.
Ukrainian authorities have called on UNESCO and international partners to take stronger action, emphasizing that targeting a city hosting an official Cultural Hub shows blatant disregard for international law and the 1954 Hague Convention for the Protection of Cultural Property.
Lazare Eloundou Assomo, Director of the UNESCO World Heritage Center, said, “Safeguarding World Heritage is a shared responsibility of humanity. Heritage professionals face daily challenges in protecting, maintaining, and restoring sites with severely limited resources.”
Residents, historians, and museum workers continue documenting damage, protecting surviving artifacts, and calling for accountability from those responsible.
Since the start of the invasion, UNESCO has mobilized more than $75 million from Member States and partners to support Ukraine’s cultural, educational, media, and heritage sectors. Japan has been one of the largest contributors, providing nearly $30 million, and nearly 30 countries from Europe, North America, and Asia pledged coordinated support at a 2024 conference in Vilnius. These funds have helped implement dozens of short- and medium-term projects, including emergency protection of cultural property, risk management, 3D digitization of sites in Kyiv, Lviv, Odesa, and Chernihiv, and measures to prevent looting. UNESCO has carried out consolidation and repair projects in museums across Kyiv and Odesa, installed temporary protection such as the roof for Odesa’s Cathedral of the Transfiguration, trained more than 1,600 cultural professionals in safeguarding collections and historic buildings, and supported nearly 100 artists in exile.
Ukrainian leaders and cultural figures have often highlighted the human cost of these attacks. First Lady Olena Zelenska described the destruction of cultural sites as “a war against Ukrainian identity.”
The conflict has also taken the lives of artists and media workers. According to the Ministry of Culture, at least 346 Ukrainian artists and 126 media representatives have died since the full-scale invasion began.
As the war continues, efforts to protect, document, and restore damaged heritage remain a top priority for Ukrainian authorities, UNESCO, and international partners. The scale of destruction shows that this is not only a war over territory, but also a deliberate attempt to erase culture, history, and identity from Ukraine and, by extension, from the shared heritage of humanity.
By Katie Ruth Davies
