Statues and monuments protected thanks to sandbags, museums requesting to safeguard their art, churches saving their Christs and altarpiecesthe bombings have become situations with which all kinds of areas and industries have had to live.
Kyiv’s Freedom Museum was one of the first to ask for help, just before Putin announced the start of the Russian invasion, its director Ihor Poshyvailo told the New York Timesyes However, even though the concession took time, it was not approved when it was most needed.
We have a war not only for territory, but also for our worldview, history, language, identity, culture. The enemy seeks to destroy us not only physically, but spiritually. Thus, the objects of the attacks are also our cultural heritage. We have to protect it as part of our identity
The director declared some time later on his Facebook
Ukraine has museums of various types, from small private institutions to outstanding public collections in which they exhibit pieces by renowned and historical artists such as Goya, Rubens or Bellini, as well as a portrait of the Infanta Margarita, the protagonist of Las Meninaswhich Velázquez made in 1659.
The institutions fear that the war will not differentiate the legacy they keep behind their doors and for this reason they decided to focus on transferring part of their works to aerial bunkers.
But in the midst of the pieces saved and statements by specialists, those who are truly afraid are the history museumseven after Vladimir Putin denied Ukraine’s right to exist in one of his most “aggressive” speeches.
Threats that have not remained in wordsvarious museums and art corners have already felt the consequences, such as the Ivankiv Historical and Cultural Museum, the Vasyl Tarnovkiy Museum of Antiquities, the Assumption Cathedral, the National Art University and the Kharkiv Academy of Culture, all and more of these places have suffered the effect of the bombs.
And the solutions?
UNESCO spoke out and reinforced the measures to protect the cultural heritage of the country, proceeding to start a new evaluation with the aim of safeguarding sites such as the Cathedral of Saint Sophia or the monastic buildings of kyiv-Petschersk, which are in the focus of Russian soldiers, according to Ukrainian intelligence reports.
Audrey Azoulay, CEO of the organization, stated in a statement that “the first challenge is to mark cultural heritage sites and monuments to remind of their special status as protected areas under international law”.
On the other hand, UNESCO’s deputy director general for culture, Ernesto Ottone Ramírez, assures that UNESCO is in contact with the Ukrainian authorities with in order to signpost cultural places and monuments with the ‘blue shield’.
This sign is a distinctive established in the Hague Convention in 1954 for the Protection of Cultural Assets in case of armed conflict, the objective is to avoid deliberate damage. Russia and Ukraine are part of the countries obliged to respect this convention.
A dozen priority sites have been registered so far, including the seven world heritage sites, have a surveillance system based on the analysis of satellites that assess damage and which are used by UNESCO and the United Nations Institute for Training and Research (Unitar). (I)
Source: Eluniverso
Paul is a talented author and journalist with a passion for entertainment and general news. He currently works as a writer at the 247 News Agency, where he has established herself as a respected voice in the industry.
