Number of Ukrainian cultural infrastructure damaged by Russia has increased to 3,288

On 4 November, Ukraine's Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications issued updated figures on monuments and cultural infrastructure damaged or destroyed by Russia. Source: Ukraine's Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications  Details: According to the regional military administrations and the Kyiv City Military Administration, 10 objects were damaged in October.

Since the start of the full-scale invasion, the Russians have damaged or destroyed 1,179 cultural heritage sites and 2,109 cultural infrastructure locations.

According to the government, the affected objects of infrastructure include 120 objects of national importance, 990 objects of local importance, and 69 newly-found structures. Some objects were damaged again in Zaporizhzhia, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Dnipropetrovsk oblasts. New damage was reported in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts.

According to the ministry's assessment, cultural monuments in 18 oblasts and the city of Kyiv have been damaged or destroyed as of now.

The report also states that the count is not final because practically all of Luhansk Oblast's territory, as well as substantial portions of Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Kherson, are still under temporary occupation. It is also claimed that the Russian military damaged 368 pieces of cultural infrastructure. Objects in Donetsk, Kharkiv, Kherson, Kyiv, Mykolaiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Luhansk oblasts sustained the most damage.

On 28 October, Russian troops used aircraft bombs to attack the centre of Kharkiv. One of them struck the House of State Industry (Derzhprom), a nationally significant modernist architectural landmark. On 4 November, Kharkiv City Council representatives had an online meeting with the head of UNESCO in Ukraine, Chiara Dezzi Bardeschi.

During the discussion, the effort to put not only the Derzhprom building, but the entire Freedom Square ensemble, on the UNESCO World Heritage List was updated. "The organisation is ready to help the city with an accelerated procedure for adding the object to the World Heritage List," said Yuliia Zhurska, Deputy Head of the Department of International Cooperation. Derzhprom is currently on the UNESCO World Heritage list. As of 16 October 2024, UNESCO confirmed that 457 Ukrainian cultural heritage assets had been damaged since 24 February 2022, including 143 religious sites, 231 structures of historical and/or artistic interest, 32 museums, 33 monuments, 17 libraries, and an archive.

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