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At least 53 historic and religious sites damaged in Ukraine since Russian invasion began, UNESCO says

02 April 2022 02:34 (UTC +04:00)

At least 53 historic and religious sites in Ukraine have been damaged since the Russian invasion began, according to UNESCO, APA reports.

UNESCO alongside its sister agency UNITAR (United Nations Institute for Training and Research) has set up "a system to monitor the state of conservation of the main Ukrainian sites and monuments via satellite imagery," according to a UNESCO spokesperson.

"To date, we have been able to verify damage to at least 53 cultural sites," the spokesperson continued. This encompasses 29 religious' sites, 16 historic buildings, 4 museums and 4 monuments, according to the organization.
The northeastern city of Kharkiv has suffered the most damage with 18 damaged sites including the Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theater, the Kharkiv Art Museum and the Drobytskyi Yar Holocaust Memorial.

Also on the list are the Drama Theater in the besieged port city of Mariupol which was devastated by Russian bombing on March. In the northern city of Chernihiv, St. Catherine's Church, an elaborate gold domed church is also among the damaged sites.

So far key landmarks in the capital Kyiv have escaped largely unscathed, with one notable exception being the church, Voznesens'ka Tserkva, Church of Ascension.

None of the seven UNESCO World Heritage sites located in Ukraine have been damaged by hostilities, according to the UNESCO list. The agency is "working with the Ukrainian authorities to list the priority sites and define the terms of this deployment," the spokesperson added.

As an additional safeguard, UNESCO Director General Audrey Azoulay sent a formal letter to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergey Lavrov "reminding him of the obligations of the Russian Federation and providing him with the location data of Ukrainian World Heritage sites so that they can be protected from any bombing," the spokesperson said.