UN experts have shown the total or partial destruction of 152 cultural and ancient heritage sites in Ukraine since russia’s invasion of the country, its cultural firm said on Thursday.
They come with museums and monuments, churches and other religious buildings, libraries and other notable buildings, UNESCO said in an update on its efforts to get the Ukrainian government to document the damage.
“These repeated attacks on Ukraine’s cultural sites will have to stop. Cultural heritage, in all its forms, should under no circumstances be a goal,” UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay said in a statement.
His signature is helping the Ukrainian government mark milestones with the exclusive “blue shield,” meaning they are through the 1954 Hague Convention on Culture in Armed Conflict, to which Russia and Ukraine are signatories.
However, dozens of sites have been destroyed since the beginning of the Russian invasion on February 24, three-quarters of them in the eastern regions of Kharkiv and Donetsk, as well as near the capital, Kyiv, UNESCO said in its update.
But for now, the seven World Heritage sites in Ukraine have been affected, such as The St. Sophia Cathedral and the kyiv-Pechersk Lavra monastic buildings in the capital.
Ukraine has demanded that Russia be expelled from UNESCO, and the firm indefinitely postponed an assembly to discuss the prestige of the World Heritage sites that Russia will host this month in the town of Kazan.
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UNESCO has warned that Russian troops or officials convicted of knowingly destroying Ukrainian heritage sites can be prosecuted under foreign law.
(This story was not edited by NDTV staff and is automatically generated from a syndicated source. )
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